Questions?
by KillJoyGem
Summary: as a mysterious figure causes trouble around homeworld, a small group of gems are tasked with tracking them down but how long before members of the team start to wonder what this gems intentions are and whether they're good or bad.
1. Stolen

AN: so this is just something I'm trying hope you enjoy, also they're won't really be any stuff on earth in this but its set in the same timeline, have fun ;)

Aquamarine walked over to her work wasn't much just a few computer screens. She was one of the many surveillance experts on homeworld. One of several and easily replaced, that's what she was always told. She never really stopped to ask why, though she had seen many gems asking those questions, either to themselves on her screens or directly to her. It was aquamarine's job to report these supposedly strange behavings, and usually she would but…not always.

The blue gem heard a beeping noise and looked down to see her communicator, she had a message. It was from amber, a gem who worked in the surveillance department for the 46th quadrant. Aquamarine watched over most of the 45th quadrant and had had to talk to amber many times before. ' _what are you doing latr'._ Amber and Aqua (as she had her friends call her) often met up after work. Mostly to gossip about stuff they had seen on their camera's.'* _later* and meeting up with you I presume?'_ she replied.

She watched the screens for a few minutes before getting a reply. _'Yes, I was just checking'_ she read. She looked back at the of them showed a peridot and a quartz embracing, aqua thought they looked cute together. But it was her duty to report "defective" behavior. With a sigh she started to fill out a report…

* * *

A small green and pink gem was wandering about her had just came up with a new form of gem, fluorite, this gem would hopefully be very smart but also strong,one day it would most likely replace her. She just needed approval from her superior, zirconia. Her communicator beeped harshly and made her simply read ' _sounds good tourmaline, do it'._

Tourmaline opened a form on her computer that would tell a kindergartener to come pick up the formula for an injector. She was about half way through when suddenly the screen turned completely black."whats-" all the lights went off. The now scared gem turned around to hear a smashing sound. Someone had broken in."STOP" she yelled at a hooded figure. The other gem looked at her for a second before leaving, taking all tourmalines research and the new formula with her.

"No no no NO NO" once the lights went back on tourmaline realised what had happened, "I'm dead". Her computer screen went back on and she started rapidly typing figures into the had been wiped too. She could hear footsteps coming down the corridor outside. Tourmaline knew it was zirconia but didn't want to acknowledge it.

"TOURMALINE, what in STARS happened here!" the larger gem screamed. Tourmaline cowered slightly under zirconia's glare "someone broke in…"

"why did you let them get away!"zirconia stepped closer to she got closer tourmaline started to back away "I could barely see, they were really fast, I-"

"ENOUGH, that doesn't change anything!"Zirconia yelled at the now just stood shaking, trying not to knock anything over. The large white gem sighed and turned away, "what have we lost".

* * *

Jade walked down the metallic looking street. She didn't have anything to do at the minute so she decided to look around the area she usually stayed in on homeworld, quadrant passed a building dubbed 'gem reproduction investigation-4' , a small dark blue gem ran out the building and to straight into her.

"Watch where you're going!" she pushed the other gem away from her. Said gem almost dropped what she was holding before catching it and running in the other direction.

'wonder what that was about' she thought.

Just a few moments later she received a message on her communicator from her commander, _'be on look out for a small dark blue gem wearing a hooded clothing article'_ it read.

"oops" she said aloud.

* * *

Aquamarine stared blankly at one of the screens in front of her.

"your in trouble" aqua almost fell off her chair before she turned around and saw amber standing in the doorway,

"oh it's you, wait why?" she asked her friend.

"dunno but moissanite wants you"

"ehhhh not looking forward to this" she slid off her seat and followed amber towards their bosses room.

Moissanite looked up from her desk as two gems entered the room.

"aquamarine, are you aware there was a robbery in your quadrant?" she asked.

"no, mam, I did not see that" aqua replied robotically.

"this kind of thing isn't acceptable, aquamarine, one more mishap and you'll be broken" aqua tensed up at moissanites words, "anyway you can try and redeem yourself for this-"

"oh yes ,ill do anything!" aqua quickly stuttered.

"I wasn't finished talking!" aqua shrunk back, "I'm putting you on a team with amber, a soldier named jade, a peridot and the scientist who was present during the robbery, tourmaline."

"you are to meet with them tomorrow"

AN(again): so I know this isn't very long but the chapters should get longer as the story goes on, so if anyone's reading, thanks and the next chapter should be up next week sometime


	2. Meeting

**AN: Welcome back and thank you for reviewing, following and favouriting it made my day :)**

"After you", amber bowed mockingly.

"Pfft, unnecessary" aqua said back. The two were meeting the rest of their team for the first time today. They had been told to meet at the building where the robbery occurred which luckily, wasn't too far from their personal chambers.

"This place is really weird" amber noted as she looked at the rooms around them, "why do all the rooms have windows?"

"Dunno but I kinda like it" aqua stopped suddenly, "this is it". The room in front of her appeared to be the only room in the building that didn't have windows rather than plain walls, the door had the words "meeting room 2" engraved onto looked around as aqua opened the door "wonder where meeting room 1 is" she muttered to herself.

Peridot and tourmaline looked up as the door opened, both feeling slightly relieved. The two had been sitting in awkward silence for the past 15 minutes and were glad someone else was gems walked in, one was wearing a dark blue dress and had light blue hair tumbling down their back while the other had short orange hair and a yellow dress with a brown band going across her torso.'those outfits seem improper' peridot thought to herself.

"Emm hello" the blue one said,"I'm aquamarine and this is amber" she gestured toward the other gem. All four gems just stared at each other for a moment before tourmaline broke the silence,"I'm tourmaline, this is obviously peridot" she said without moving, "jade should be arriving soon".

"Ok, well what should we do till then? "Amber asked the others.

"We could introduce ourselves a bit?" everybody stared at tourmaline as though she had suggested they go jump in lava. "I guess I'll go first then…my names tourmaline but you already knew that, I am a scientist who works around the clock to come up with ways to make new more efficient gems, I have been doing this since I emerged", she waved her hand at peridot, "your turn".

"I'm a peridot, I have no set job other than technician and engineer "Peridot crossed her arms and sat back in her chair, "which one of you are next".

"okaaay, I'm amber I cover surveillance of most of the 46th quadrant, in my spare time I meet up with aqua..…who is going to talk now" amber nodded in approval of her own little speech.

"my names aqua ,I cover most of the 45th quadrant in surveillance and meet up with amber in my spare time….jeez that was boring" aqua started to try and think if she had ever done anything more exiting but came up with nothing.

"Well that's it then" tourmaline added. They all continued to sit in silence after that.

A while later, the door opened again and jade walked in, everyone stared at her as she entered, "someone die or something? "She joked. "No but your late", peridot flat lined.

"Sorry lost track of time, I guess" jade replied.

Jade sat down with the others, "so what are we doing first then" she asked

Aqua pulled a small screen out of the bag she had slung over her shoulder and started typing figures onto it, "we should probably start by seeing if we can get a picture of the robber".

"But the power was off" tourmaline pointed out. Aqua thought to herself for a second, "we can check the cameras in the surrounding area to see if we can find anyone matching your description", she started going through videos in fast forward with amber watching next to her.

"STOP, go back" amber pointed at the screen, sure enough there was a blurry image of a small dark blue gem there, only just being caught by the camera's. Aqua continued typing "ill enhance it" she stated. Slowly the picture became clearer. Even with the enhanced photo you couldn't see the figures face or gem, but you could see their clothes. The gem was wearing a dark purple hoodie with a navy skirt and slightly lighter tights, she had no shoes on. "It's a start but clearly this person know how to avoid cameras" aqua said.

"What exactly did she take?" jade asked turning to other gem looked at the picture while she talked "she took all the info from my computer and the formula for a new gem I just came up with" she said slightly proud of her accomplishment.

"Why would she want that?" peridot questioned. Tourmaline shrugged in reply, "to sell?" , Amber shook her head, "that's unlikely, people sell working gems like pearls or peridots, no one would be interested in a gem that hasn't been made yet.".

"well either way, it's our job to find her, so let's get out on the streets and ask around" jade said confidently, "we should go in pairs, well I'll go alone,emmm peridot with amber and aqua with tourmaline"

"what!"

"cant me and amber just stay together"

"no way! I don't wanna be stuck with the peridot!"

Jade rubbed her temples "stop arguing and go, I am above all of you, remember?",the other stayed quiet, "think of it as a…..teamwork exercise!...yeah"

Tourmaline and aqua walked around the 45th quadrant aimlessly, "where are we supposed to go?" tourmaline asked.

"dunno maybe one of those places, what are the called, where people go to meet their friends and stuff".tourmaline looked confused for a second "oh, you mean a recreation room?"

"yeah that's it,theres one near here right?". Tourmaline nodded "it's this way".

When the two arrived at the recreation room there was almost no-one walked up to the manager, "why is it so empty in here?" aqua wondered aloud.

"it gets busier at dark" the tall gem replied from behind the counter,"names spinel, what can I do for ya".Tourmaline didn't think she'd ever seen someone be so casual. Aqua held up the picture of the gem, " have you seen this gem?" she asked. Spinel thought for a moment, " well there's a few gems who come in here dressed similar to that…" she replied.

"that's great, do you know their names?" tourmaline said.

"hmmm, tanzanite, blue topaz and lazulite, I don't know their facets or anything, just that" spinel recounted.

"ugh its fine I think I know who they are"aqua said back to spinel.

"you do?" tourmaline replied, surprised.

"yeah they're troublemakers, I've had to make like a million and one reports about them" aqua told the other gems.

"Do you know where to find them?" tourmaline asked her team member.

"yep, let's go."the two gems turned around and headed towards the door.

"did you mean yes" spinel heard tourmaline ask.

"no I meant yep" aqua said as she went out the door.

"good luck" she said as the automatic door closed behind them.

 **AN: okaaaaay, that's chapter two done, next chapter we will see what amber and peridot are doing, btw it's not the peridot from the show, encase you hadn't worked that out, she's on .Any way see you** **never** **next chapter!**


	3. So close yet so far

**AN: sorry it took so long to update, also I'm writing this on my phone so I have no idea what it looks like on pc, enjoy ;)**

 **-X-**

Peridot and amber walked down one of homeworlds many almost identical streets.

"What are we even looking for?" Amber said while shoving her hands in the pockets of her dress.

"The robber, obviously" peridot replied.

"No I mean , what are we looking for right now? It's not like we will just come across her on the street" Amber looked at the grey sky, "well I mean we might, but I doubt she's that dumb"

Peridot looked at the sky in an attempt to figure out what Amber was looking at. It was the same sky she had seen every day since she emerged, she didn't ever think it needed to be looked at in great detail.'This just makes you unaware of your surroundings' she thought.

She was proved to be right only a few seconds later when she crashed into a small blue gem about the same size as Amber, holding a pile of paper. The other gem quickly pulled the paperwork to her chest.

"Be careful" the gem hissed at them. Amber looked to the ground and noticed a piece of paper had bent down to pick it up, handing it back to the blue gem who tore it out her hands.

"Sorry about that" she said, almost confused by the others behaviour.

"It's fine", she muttered quickly before running past them.

"Well that was weird" Amber said as they began to walk again.

"Certainly",peridot replied flatly.

"HEY WAIT A SECOND", Amber swiveled round sharply, and searched the street for the strange gem. She was nowhere in sight.

"What! what is it!" Peridot yelled trying to follow ambers gaze once again.

"That gem fit the description of the robber" Amber started to walk in the direction they had just carefully traced her steps making sure to check down any side streets for the blue gem. "I can't believe I let her get away" Amber face-palmed.

She looked down the street "there's just housing down that way, right?"

"I have no idea" peridots do not get housing.

"No, but higher up gems do" she said matter of factly, "maybe our robber is a high ranked gem of some sort? An aristocrat maybe?"

Peridot thought to herself before speaking "if she is then she is probably in a computer system somewhere" she paused to make sure Amber was still listening, "it would take a while but we might be able to find someone fitting her description, even if we could only get a name, it would be better than nothing."

"Ah peridot you're a genius"

-X-

Jade had know idea why she said she would go on her own, she didn't completely know what she was supposed to be doing, other than finding the mystery gem, infact she had almost completely forgot what the gem looked again she could barely remember what her new teammates looked like. Amber and Aqua looked more or less identical to her, except for their gem, colours and hair. She realised she hadn't actually seen their gems, perhaps they were the same, who knows?

The peridot just looked the same as all the others, everything from the triangle hair to the diamond on their chests. She wondered how many other gems bore the same symbol and looked down to her own. For a moment she wondered how many didn't wear one, the rebel gem was the first gem she'd ever seen to not show the diamond insignia somewhere on her clothing.

She didn't know how to feel about that. The homeworld training in her wanted to feel disgusted at such disorder, but try as she might she knew a little bit of her felt excited and slightly envious. In a way she respected the thief, simply because as far as she was aware no other gem dared to remove the diamond from their clothes.

Even most criminals she had seen had still worn one on there clothes somewhere, not that she had seen many, and even then most were arrested for petty crimes like "disturbing the peace".

'Peace' she thought to herself 'nobody looks very peaceful to me.'

To jade everyone on homeworld looked pretty much dead inside, even the pearls' smiles didn't reach there eyes. She tried to think of a time she had seen a gem be genuinely happy. She could remember plenty of times where people had seemed happy but she wondered how sincere their smiles and laughs actually were.

Jade looked up and realised she was back at the lab. She went in and found her way to meeting room 2.

There was nobody there.

"Might as well just wait here for the others" she said to the empty room.

"Well this sucks…"

-X-

 **AN: hope you enjoyed And sorry it's still not very long, I'm not great at writing long things ;p**

 **Please review to let me know what you think!**

 **Edit: you have no idea how many times I had to rewrite this, but i think its finally perfect ;)**


	4. Sorry

Ok so I'm hoping doesn't remove any of these words, if your wondering why my last chapter is do messed up its because the site keeps taking away random bits of writing after I've saved something and I have no idea why, but hopefully once I'm back to writing on my laptop the chapters will back to normal.

Once again thanks if you have reviewed, favourited or followed, it feels great knowing someone actually likes this ;p

-KJG


	5. I don't know what to call this chapter

**AN: so hey again, eeeeh I've not updated for a while have I? Oh well this will be longer than normal…hopefully**.

-X-

"What is this place?"

"I think they used to make pearls here", Aqua kicked a piece of debris lying by her feet, "stars know what happened."

The building in front of them looked completely abandoned. There was dust every where and holes in almost all the walls, somewhere in the distance the two gems could hear someone clattering about, mixed with random yells.

"So this is where you think the robber will be?" Tourmaline asked, with a hint of doubt in her voice.

"This is where I think blue topaz and her gang will be, whether they are the robbers or not, I have no idea"

Tourmaline and Aqua walked out into a clearing, it looked like it may have been some sort of hall at some point but was now stripped of not only the walls but the ceiling too.

Aqua jumped to the side suddenly as a dark blue gem shot past to where she had just been and smashed into the wall behind her. The gem was wearing a black tank top and navy leggings. The blue gem groaned as she climbed back to her feet.

"Okay laz, that's enough training for today", a gem at the other side of the room said, "It would seem we have visitors"

Lazurite looked at tourmaline and aqua for a second before moving to stand next to the other gem.

Said gem moved forward to greet the unfamiliar gems, She was sporting a dark blue sleeveless shirt and black quarter-length leggings with navy blue hair down to the bottom of her ribcage, pushed back by a black hair band.

"I'm-" she began holding out a hand to Aqua.

"Blue topaz, I know." Aqua shook blue topazes outstretched hand. Blue topaz looked confused for a second but quickly regained her composure.

"Have we met?" She asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Nope" Aquamarine replied calmly.

"Ahh so you've heard of me?" Blue topaz smirked, clearly proud of the reputation she knew she had.

"Eh something like that" Aqua said back.

Tourmaline stood watching the two slightly irritated and also slightly confused as the two were still shaking each other's hands. ' _Is that normal?_ ' She wondered before speaking up.

"Are you two gonna have a chat or are we going to do our jobs" she asked aquamarine while crossing her arms.

Blue topaz withdrew her hand while glancing at tourmaline, she looked Back to Aqua,

"Is there something you require?".

"Yes! Do you know this gem?" She held up a screen with the robbers picture on it.

"Well, in theory that could be me or either of my gems", she eyed the two gems suspiciously "when was this?"

"A few days ago" Tourmaline replied trying to remember exactly when it was.

"Could you please be more specific" Blue topaz' smile now now looked forced.

"….no"

"Then sorry I can't help you" She turned around ,shrugging her shoulders. She joined the two gems sitting behind other gem, presumably tanzanite was wearing the same thing as lazurite but with a dark blue hoodie tied around her waist, both gems had grey-blue hair, tied back in to a messy ponytail, lazurites being messier than tanzanites.

The two gems were counting pieces of homeworld currency, several thin plastic cards with little chips in them ((imagine a debit card but thinner) ).Aqua guessed they had about four hundred cards, each one being about five homeworld dollars.

Tourmalines eyes widened as she noticed blood on some of the cards. Aqua either hadn't noticed or wasn't bothered.

"Are you sure because like you said this could be any of you's" Aqua said

Blue topaz smirked " I've been meeting with…clients every day this past week."

Tourmaline had a feeling that the people they had been meeting with weren't exactly willing clients and subconsciously gripped the sides of her lab coat.

Aqua looked annoyed for a second before smiling and turning around, "okie then, tourmaline, let's go."

Tourmaline looked at the three criminals before turning and catching up with her team mate.

"We're just leaving!" She whisper shouted.

"Hmm? Oh, they didn't do it." Aqua stated confidently.

"How do you know?" Tourmaline asked seemingly flustered.

Aqua smirked to herself "That's a secret"

-X-

Jade Jumped slightly as the door opened, she had zoned out while waiting for the others to come back.

"Something wrong?, you look like you've seen a ghost" Amber said sarcastically.

Jade rolled her eyes at ambers comment, "I just didn't think you'd be back so fast, that's all", she paused trying to remember what she was supposed to be saying right now "did you find anything?"

Amber and peridot sat down at the diamond shaped table in the middle of the room.

"We think we have an idea of what caste she's from", Amber replied

"Sooo, nothing then?" Jade looked expectantly at the two gems before was starting to look agitated but Amber was smiling happily.

"No ,of course we did! Based on this information we can go through a variety of systems and look for any gem that matches our robber", Amber said to her while peridot made her screen with her robotic fingers.

"Let's begin" she said to the other two gems.

"Shouldn't we wait for blue and watermelon", jade asked slowly.

"Who?" Peridot looked confused.

Amber sighed a little bit but was still smiling "she means Aqua and tourmaline, though you were almost right with watermelon" Amber said turning towards jade at the last part.

"tourmalines full title is watermelon tourmaline".

"I know that", jade said as though it was obvious, "it's just more fun to call her watermelon than tourmaline"

"Can we begin?!" ,Jade and Amber looked over at peridot, with surprise etched on their faces.

"Yeah, okay" Amber replied, "start by going through the aristocrats".

"Never saw you as the shouting type",Jade directed at peridot.

"I'm not, but I have better things to be doing than sitting around watching you two have meaningless conversations",peridot replied never taking her eyes of the screen. "I have downloaded the files of every current aristocrat of the diamond authority"

"Complete with pictures?", Amber said hopefully.

"of course, it would take much to long to find each one just to see what they look like.".

"I'll send half of these to you" peridot said as Amber picked up her screen that she had left on the table earlier.

Once Amber received the file she opened the picture of the robber to compare looked at the others in the room, Jade was sitting with her face down on the table, clearly bored and peridot was already going through files.' _I wonder what Aqua's doing right now_ ' she thought to herself, ' _better get started_.'

With a small sigh she opened the first file.

-X-

 **AN: just a teeeeny tiny bit longer, again I'm sorry if any words are missing the websites being really weird lately**

 **Anyway, please review ,follow blah blah blah you know the drill**

 **OH one more thing! Thanks to anyone who followed, favourited or reviewed, well I mean thanks to kimDWil70 for the only review on this fic ;p**


	6. Oblivious

**AN: ive finally fixed the mistakes on this chapter...  
**

 **-X-**

Tourmaline walked into meeting room 2 with Aqua trailing behind her. She looked around to see what the others are doing, Amber and peridot were flicking through gem files on their respective screens, occasionally stopping for a few seconds before moving on again.

Aqua slid into a seat next to Amber and Tourmaline sat at the other edge of the diamond shaped table, across from peridot.

"What'd I miss", Aqua said to Amber who continued to look through files.

"First of all, your grammar is terrible", Amber stated sparing a glance to her friend momentarily, a small grin on her face.

"So Tourmaline keeps telling me, heh"

"And second, we think the robber might be an aristocrat or high ranked gem of some sort, so we're going through a bunch of gem files trying to find someone who matches her appearance", Amber added in a happy tone.

"Thrilling", Aqua replied, dragging out the 'th'.

Aqua looked at Jade who was still sitting with her head on the table, she didn't look bored infact she didn't look anything, her face was completely blank.

"Ehhh", Aqua poked jades shoulder the green gem shot up to look at her from across the table.

"H-huh, what?", Jade stuttered.

"I'm not even going to try and question that", Tourmaline commented before attempting to read peridots files backwards through her screen.

"So I take you've had no luck so far?", Amber said to peridot and Amber.

"No", they replied in unison.

"Emm do you need any help?", she asked.

"Yes", they said again before each sending Aqua some files.

"That's really weird", Jade said looking back and forth between Amber and peridot.

"What is?", Amber replied in a confused tone.

Tourmaline started to tap her fingers on the table, "you two were speaking at the same time".

After that nobody said anything, Aqua started going through files, Jade just stared at the wall behind Amber and Aqua, and tourmaline sat with her head being supported with one hand the other still tapping the cold white metallic like surface of the table.

 **MEANWHILE**

A blue figure is sitting at a dimly lit front of her she had several bits of paper and three different figure would read a piece of paper a few minutes, type into her computer before stopping to nibble on her nails.

"There's gotta be something…" She muttered to her head and sighing, she pushed the papers out the way before a holographic screen appeared above the desk in front of her, she tapped on a few things, making 5 gem files appear on the screen, each slightly over lapping each other.

The gem made the holographic screen bigger so she could see all of them at once.

"Two surveillance experts, a peridot, a quartz and that scientist….well they won't be a problem", she swiped the screen to the side and it disappeared.

She got up and walked to a door behind her.

"I need a break", with that she started walking in the direction of the recreation room Amber and tourmaline had visited earlier.

"Hey spinel", she said as she approached the counter the red skinned gem stood behind.

"Wassup, lite", spinel replied casually.

"Iolite, we've talked about this", Iolite said with a small grin on her face,"and not much"

"Whatever, lite sounds cooler",spinel said grabbing a container and glass from behind her and pouring the containers contents into the glass, "don't know how you drink this stuff, it's like ,pure sugar: liquefied"

"I like it", Iolite shrugged.

"Oh hey,I think two gems where looking for you earlier", Spinel said raising one eyebrow at Iolite.

"Probably"

"You gonna share why?", the laidback gem said playfully.

"No", Iolite replied straight.

"Eh, I won't bother you about it then..." Spinel started to walk to the other side of the counter, "But are you sure" she said sliding back to where Iolite was standing.

"Yes Spinel", she said smiling.

Suddenly the pair heard the door open, two gems walking in.

"I can't believe none of those were the robber, I really thought I was right", One of them said.

"You always think your right", the other laughed.

"Robber?" Spinel whispered to Iolite before calling out to the new pair in the room, "Aquamarine! You just couldn't get enough of me could you?"

Iolite tensed up before she realised she wasn't wearing the same clothes as she was on the day she stole the information from the lab. She was now wearing a long sleeved light blue shirt with what looked black skinny jeans, a white band with a blue bow pushing her fringe out her eyes.

"Yep, give us two of whatever tastes best, please", Aqua smiled at the other gem.

"Well apparently this is good", spinel said handing them the same thing she had given Iolite.

"Thanks", Aqua replied, "oh this is Amber by the way"

"Cool, so what have have you two lovely gems been doing today", spinel said leaning with her elbows on the counter in front of the two.

"Just work, we won't bore you with the details",Aqua said taking a sip of her drink, "I like this stuff".

Amber looked at the liquid, unsure of herself, before taking a sip. The other three gems watching her intently waiting for her reaction.

Amber quickly pushed the cup away, her face scrunched up.

"That's disgusting".

"See, I told you that stuffs horrible!", spinel said matter of factly to Iolite who smirked at her from behind her cup as she drank more of the sweet liquid.

Amber looked to her side where Iolite was. She hadn't even noticed the other gem there.

' _Wow I'm blind_ ' she thought to herself."Hi" she said to the blue gem.

"Hello", Iolite drank the last bit in her cup before turning around and leaving, "Goodbye".

Amber watched her leave with a confused expression on her face while Aqua and Spinel conversed about some random topic.

"That was weird", she said before turning round and joining in with the conversation Aqua and spinel were having.

-X-

 **Amber really is blind, isn't she? Oh well hehe, so yeah**

 **See you next time**!


	7. New friends

**AN: so the last chapter wasn't as bad as I was expecting but still missed out a lot of words, I thought to make up for the website being annoying I would write another chapter real quick, hope you enjoy ;p**

/

Amber and Aqua were walking back towards the lab.

"I don't think the others like us very much", Amber said randomly.

Aqua looked at her in confusion , "why not?".

"Well they always seem like they can't be bothered with us" , the blue gem almost actually laughed.

"It not us they can't be bothered with , it's the whole mission. "Jade doesn't like it because there is no fighting really involved, you said peridot already told you she had better things to do, tourmaline just wants the info back so she doesn't get in trouble and we're just following orders, if you ask me deep down, none of us can be bothered!" ,

Amber looked at the smiling blue gem walking along side her. _You are a strange one, Aqua_

It wasn't long before they we're back in meeting room 2 , back in their previous seats except for the fact that when Amber tried to sit down in her seat, Aqua pushed her over and sat in it. Amber sighed but was still wearing her usual smile before sitting in the seat that had previously been Aqua's .

"You're ridiculous, you know.", Amber said to her friend.

"OK ,so what are we doing now", Tourmaline asked the others , "I mean, that gem wasn't an aristocrat and I doubt she's a general or anything like that".

"No, we are back to square one , more or less" , Aqua that everyone went silent for a minute before the silence was broken by peridot.

"...what does that mean?", she asked in a confused tone.

"It means we're pretty much back where we started", Jade told the green technician.

"well that sucks", Aqua said hopelessly.

"Well we have to do something! I already said I don't want to be here didn't I?", Peridot yelled at the group.

The other gems just looked down at the table none of them knew what to do, every lead they had had turned up short. Tourmaline once again tapped her fingers on the table. She figured it was somewhat of a nervous habit. Habits were of course discouraged on homeworld and tourmaline had figured that out very early in her life but that didn't stop her continuing her habits in private. But this wasn't private, there was other gems here.

Tourmaline looked around at the others and realised they all had their own habits. Jade was running her fingers through her hair, Aqua was biting her lip, peridot was clenching the table so tightly she was leaving little silver marks on the surface and though you could barely notice, Amber was also tapping one of her fingers on the table, just a lot less obviously than tourmaline.

"Well, I'm not staying here", Aqua said standing up.

"What?", Tourmaline asked the blue gem walking towards the door.

"I'm going to that recreation place again", Aqua stopped before she closed the door, "let me know if you find anything new" , she said leaving the others alone.

 **Recreation room 1134**

"Hey, I'm back", Aqua said as she entered. The first thing she noticed was that the blue gem from earlier was back and was talking to spinel.

"I welcome you, m'lady", spinel said , taking a mock bow as Aqua walked over, "I take it you want the same poison you were drinking earlier?".

"Haha, yeah, that'd be nice", Aqua said going to stand next to the other gem at the counter. The gem awkwardly shuffled a few centimetres away from her. _She must be shy_ Aqua thought to herself.

"Here ya go", she said setting a cup down on the counter,"Hey, did you meet iolite!", the red gem said despite the daggers that were being glared at her.

"Eh no…hi" , the light blue gem said awkwardly holding out a hand for Iolite to shake. Iolite looked at her hand before shaking it hesitantly.

"she usually speaks more than this", The red gem said jokingly.

"Ha, it's okay, I don't talk to people very often anyway. Well except for Amber." , Aqua told the other two gems.

"So, I heard you were looking for a robber?", spinel asked the surveillance expert.

"Yeah, that was the gem me and tourmaline were asking about", Aqua furrowed her eyebrows while Iolite listened to her words intently, "We can't find her though, it wasn't any of blue topaz' gang and it wasn't an aristocrat like Amber thought, and now we don't know what to do, y'know?"

"Not…not really", spinel said slowly, "smart stuff isn't really my strong point, haha, I'm just her to pour juice into cups".

Spinel looked at the strange clock like device on the well. "Closing time", she sang cheerfully.

The three gems realised there were no one else but them in the room. As they were walking to the door Iolite realised that the best way to keep track of the case was to talk to Aqua.

"Ok , byeee!", Aqua said as spinel walked away.

"Eh woops, BYE SPINEL" she yelled to the other gem who you could now tell was about half a foot taller than Aqua and Iolite.

Aqua started to walk away when Iolite grabbed her wrist, blushing slightly, she said, "emm I was just wondering if you want to come to my rest area", Iolite squinted at the ground as though trying to remember something, "I have emberinin (that's the sweet stuff you drank earlier).", she half whispered the last part.

"well it's not like I've got anything better to do", Aqua smiled, shoving her hands in her pockets.

"let's go"

/

 **AN: so I'm not sure if I missed any mistakes or anything but I hope you enjoyed this ;D**


	8. The first secret

**AN: good news! I think the website isn't missing out words anymore! (I THINK), but I just realised while reading over my last chapters how bad I am at writing, oh well *shrugs***

 **Anyway, without further Adue**!

~X~

The two blue gems arrived at the building in which Iolite lived. Aqua noted that is was the same type of housing that is usually reserved for high ranked gems. Just for a second, suspicion sparked in her but she ignored it and continued to follow the other gem.

"So are you like….important? I mean are you like an aristocrat or something", she asked trying not to sound like she was prying.

"No, I used to be a scientist though", the two gems had arrived at a door,"apparently I was good enough to get decent housing".

Iolite quickly swiped a small plastic looking object over a scanner by the door, the door immediately opened for them and they walked inside.

Aqua took in her surroundings carefully. There was a desk at the other side of the room , facing away from the door. On the right there was another door and in the middle of the room was a two-seater sofa, everything was in varying shades of blue and the light above them was gentle rather than harsh like the ones at tourmalines lab.

"You can sit down and I will get the emberinin", Iolite said before leaving swiftly through the door on the right side of the room.

Aqua quickly got up and walked towards the desk where random pieces of paper were covering the surface.

-X-

Iolite started pressing buttons on the wall opening small compartments. She looked in them quickly before moving on to the next one. Eventually she found the emberinin and two cups. She started to pour out the drinks.

Have I forgotten something?

She poured the last of the sweet liquid into the blue cup while using her other hand to hold the cup steady. Her mind drifted toward her crimes the other night as she tried to remember what she had forgotten.

Oh crap

-X-

Aquas eyes widened as she realised what she was looking at on the table.

"You know I'm not gonna let you leave now, right?"

Aqua spun round on her heal still holding sheets of paper. Iolite was standing leaning against the door they had come in with two cups in her hands.

"One of those fore me?", Aqua said shoving the papers behind her and trying to pretend nothing happened.

"Yes", she glanced at the papers for a second before looking back at Aqua , "you can't have it till you answer my first question though"

Aqua leaned back on the table and looked around the room nervously, "I was hoping that was rhetorical".

"Nope…..also I'm pretty sure you need to look up the definition of rhetorical."

Aquamarine eventually decided after a minute of searching over the room that the only exit was the door Iolite was currently standing in front of.

My communicator!

She quickly reached for the small device in her pocket attempting instantly to send a message. The other gem looked mildly confused before she realised what aquamarine was holding.

"NO", Iolite dropped the drinks on the floor and ran at the frantically typing gem on the other side of the room summoning a small battle axe from the gem on her chest as she did. Aqua just managed to jump out of the way narrowly missing a hit from iolite a weapon. She examined the axe Iolite was wielding.

It had a dark blue handle with a blue-ish purple diamond on the end. The blade was a silvery blue with the edge being a rich ultramarine colour.

Aqua realised she had dropped her communicator it was now about three feet away from both gems. The two made a dive at the small device, Aqua reached it first but had to dodge another swing from iolites axe.

She started trying to type again while continuously evading iolites attack. Lucky for he,r Iolite had terrible aim.

"Stay still!", Iolite hissed as the other gem started to retype her message for the sixth time but stopped suddenly ask she realised she was now backed up against a wall, battle axe at her throat.

"I really am, truly sorry"

"Wait!"

"What?!"

"I can help you".

"…"

"Whatever your doing, I can help"

Iolite looked Aqua in the eye as she continued to press her blade to Aqua neck. One wrong move and Aqua would be sent back into her gem.

"You won't", Iolite didn't move a muscle as her blade threatened to decapitate the other gem, "you'll just call your friends to arrest me".

"I won't, I won't! I promise", Aqua said desperately. Iolite thought to herself a second. She knew even if Aqua did promise they're was always a chance she would go back on it. She tried to think back to what she had read from Aquas file. Iolite remembered that the only person listed as acquaintance was the other surveillance expert, Amber. _She would probably be happy to have another acquaintance_ Iolite thought to herself.

"Fine", she unsummoned her weapon, " I don't like fighting anyway".

Iolite walked over to her desk and started rearranging papers. "You ruined my order", she muttered.

"Eeeh, so what are you trying to do? Like why did you steal this stuff?", Aquamarine looked over the table , eyes stopping at her and her former teammates files. "And why do you have these? Did you know we were watching you?"

"Stars, you ask a lot of questions", Iolite ignored said questions and continued to reorder her information.

"No I don't", Iolite rolled her eyes at the other gems response, "you never answered my questions anyway".

Iolite hadn't even realised Aqua had spoken again.

"What are we actually doing", Aqua asked again.

"I'm trying to figure out a way to weaken the diamonds.".

"Oh ok. Wait what?", Iolite turned around to look at the light blue gem. A strand of her fringe was falling into her eyes,

"I'm trying to weaken the diamonds. Without their consent of course. If I can weaken them, it will be easier to push them out of government and start a democracy".

"Oh, that makes sense. Very logical", Aqua plopped herself back on the sofa.

Iolite looked mildly smug"Yes, I know. I'm vey smart"

-X-

 **AN: So I'm not sure if anyone's actually still reading this but if they are, thank you!**

 **I'm very close to giving up on this but I might not please if you read this, review it. Pretty please ;** )


	9. Rebellion?

**AN: so I'm back again, still no one here? Cool**

-X-

Peridot was glad to be out of that lab. She started walking quickly through the city until she was on the outskirts. There waiting behind one of the tall buildings was a tall white gem.

"Albite!", peridot whispered loudly. Albite caught peridot in a hug as she rushed over to her.

"Hey, I've not seen you for a few days", albite whispered, both gems all too aware of the possibility of being caught. Albite was a highly respected not to mention rich gem who sometimes worked directly with the diamonds as a sort of advisor. Due to the difference in ranks, albites relationship with peridot was illegal.

They had met about two years ago when peridot had been escorting albite to a meeting with the diamonds. Before they had arrived a chalcedony had ran out the shadows and attempted to smash the gem on Albites neck with a staff. Peridot had swiftly stepped in front Albite and shot the assassin with an energy blast sending the chalcedony into her gem, chalcedonies are quite weak.

Peridot told albite it was just part of her job but when she escorted her home, Albite had insisted she come in for refreshments.

Now they stood in the dark on the outside of the city they both lived in as they did often, talking, catching up on the past events. Peridot told Albite the case was hopeless and she was getting tired of her teammates, Albite told her to stay safe and that the diamonds where attempting to find a high ranked soldier that had been apparently lost on a rebel controlled planet.

"A rebel controlled planet?", peridot asked, she had never even heard of a rebellion happening.

"Yes, they call it Earth", Albite told peridot, "the rebellion on earth happened a long time ago, we lost but left a geo weapon in the core. It's probably been deactivated or destroyed now though".

"I wonder what it's like there", peridot said trying to imagine a place with no rules. _Chaotic_ she thought to herself _it must be._

"I hear its beautiful….we should go there", the White gem said quickly, hoping peridot would agree but not counting on it.

"What!", peridot yelled before inwardly scolding herself for shouting," I mean, you know we can't, we just… We can't, it's wrong."

Albite sighed defeatedly knowing that even if peridot had agreed it would have been incredibly difficult to escape.

"When do you have to be back?", the White gem asked her slightly smaller partner.

"In two hours", the two gems leaned against the building next to them, holding each other's hands as best they could, what with peridots hands being robotic.

Albite nodded slowly, "I wish we could do more together", Albite commented wistfully.

"Me too, but for now let's just…..look at the stars".

"Okay"

The two sat together on the floor watching the stars and just enjoying each others company until peridot had to leave.

-X-

Peridot walked into the teams usual meeting room and looked around. Jade looked bored as ever, tourmaline was typing something into a holographic screen and Amber was looking somewhat nervous, Aqua nowhere to be found.

"Where's your friend", Jade asked the orange gem sitting across from her.

" I don't know, she wont answer her communicater", Amber replied, she sounded very on edge.

"We will just have to work without her, tourmaline what are you doing?", everyone looked to tourmaline after peridot finished talking.

"I fount out quadrant 45, area 6 - that's where we are – has a gem scanner around the perimeter which means we will be able to see who has come near the building recently, now I'm just trying to get clearance to the list of gems", tourmaline said still typing and occasionally swiping something to the side.

"…oh! Aqua should have clearance to that!", Amber exclaimed hopefully.

"Well then we find Aqua, go to her rest area, her work station and anywhere else she might be.", Jade gave out orders while everyone just stared at her, this was possibly the most she'd said this entire mission, "you have your orders, now go!"

And so they did, peridot going to her workplace and Amber and tourmaline going to Aquas rest area, while Jade headed to the recreation room Aqua had been headed the previous night.

-X-

Peridots mission was simple. Go to Aquas workplace and ask her supervisor if she had seen the blue gem.

She walked up to a white door covered in intricate patterns and loudly knocked on it with her metallic fingers.

"Come in", she heard someone say from behind the door, the voice sounded strict but tired, like someone who didn't have the patience for something to go wrong. This wasn't someone you wanted to mess with, physically or verbally and that unnerved peridot for some reason.

"Ma'am", peridot said as she walked in through the large doorway, "I have been working with the surveillance expert known as aquamarine and was wondering if you had seen said gem as she has not shown up at our meeting area."

"No, I've not seen her but you can check her work area", moissanite said looking peridot straight in the eyes.

The green techie trembled a bit before answering, "yes ma'am, thank you ma'am".

Just as peridot started to make her way along the corridor , all the buildings lights went off, instantly several gems including moissanite ran out into the hall, all of them chattering about what was happening, some were scared, others were excited and a few were stressing over the work they were missing.

Peridot looked through the chaos down towards Aquas room. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dark but when they did she could make out two figures exiting the room. A few moments later an alarm sounded and the two figures began to run. One of them looked up towards peridot and for a just a second , peridot lime green eyes met bright light blue ones before the figure turned and ran with the other gem.

 _Could it be?_

-X-

 **AN: so I'm not sure how long it took me to update this, but if it was a long time I'm sorry, I got distracted with new fics, one of which I'm very proud of. But anyway I've decided that there's no way I'm stopping this fic now, the party's just getting started!**


	10. Advantage

**AN:sorry for the wait my non-existent fans**.

-X-

Peridot walked out the surveillance facility onto the metallic streets. She had to close her eyes for a second, the sudden brightness stinging them but managed to keep walking steadily even so.

She was so sure that she had seen Aqua in that building and now she wasn't sure what to do with that information. There was always the chance it wasn't Aqua or was just another aquamarine, though they tented to be quite rare so that was unlikely.

She decided to instead of wasting her time and energy trying to figure out whether it was her teammate and rather try and figure out who the figure was.

Peridot quickly came the conclusion that this was the robber and Aqua was indeed working with her. If she comes back I'll report her.

-X-

Amber and tourmaline arrived at Aquas rest area. Amber suddenly realised she couldn't actually get into the room. She gently knocked on the door, worried about hurting her knuckles on the cold metal door.

No answer.

She tries again but knocks a little bit harder.

Still nothing.

This time she bangs a lot harder, instantly pulling back her now slightly grazed knuckles and holding them to her torso.

Maybe that was too hard.

After a minute of waiting the two gems decided to leave and head back to meeting room 2, Aqua clearly either not being in or ignoring them.

-X-

Iolite sat with her new partner in the corner of recreation room 1134, they were right at the door in case they needed to escape. Iolite had Aquas screen in front of her and was slowly going through surveillance videos. The pair heard a click sound as someone sauntered through the door.

It took doing a double take for Aqua to realise the newcomer was her ex-teammate, Jade.

"Oh no", she whispered unintentionally, "Iolite, we need to go"

Said gem looked up from the screen before realising she hadn't paused it.

"Oops, what's the problem?", she said possibly a little too loud.

Aqua quickly put her finger to her lips and gestured towards Jade. Iolite stared at the green gem now in discussion with spinel with a confused look on her face before it clicked in her mind who it was.

"We need to go", she said, now whispering.

"I know, I just said that", Aquamarine noticed Jade hadn't seen them due to their position in the room. The small gem gem could hear her unneeded heart beating in her chest, suddenly all too aware of the consequences of being caught.

"Come on, lets go", Iolite mouthed ,already at the door. She immediately responded by silently slipping out her chair and joining her partner at the door.

The two gems quickly slipped out the door.

"Wait, I left some info on the table!", Iolite yelled franticly.

"How important is it?", Aqua said, itching to get as far as possible from the green soldier.

"Well, I wrote our names on it…", Iolite replied inwardly kicking herself for making such a stupid mistake.

"GO GET IT, sorry for yelling", the blue gem fisted the side of her skirt, creating several creases before smoothing them out again.

"Ok", Iolite dashed inside and somehow jammed her small fingers in the door. She turned around silently hissing and glaring at her own hand when she looked up to see the very gem she had been avoiding standing a few feet away and looking right at her.

"Oh no", the thief grabbed her sheet of paper and spun round, shooting out the door.

"STOP, COME BACK", Iolite could hear Jade running behind her as she reached Aqua. The pale blue gem yelped as Iolite grabbed her arm forcing her to run. The two ran towards no where in particular with Iolite still essentially dragging Aqua.

 _Damn, she's fast_.

"Where are we going?", she asked the gem slightly ahead of her.

"I- I don't know", The scientist looked behind her to see that Jade was still following them and was starting to catch up. Other gems in the area giving both parties dirty looks as they got in the way.

"We'll go to my rest area", Aqua snapped.

Jade watched as the two gems disappeared from view and sighed to herself. She got so close, AGAIN, and once again had let the robber slip through her fingers. Or I guess robbers. It occurred for the first time to Jade that she had been chasing two gems, both in the same apparel except with opposite shades of blue.

 _That's new_.

Jade decided to walk back to the recreation room and talk to spinel again. The red gem had insisted she had never even seen a dark blue gem wearing a hooded jumper and skirt. Initially Jade had decided to trust spinel despite the tiny smirk she was wearing now Jade had just witnessed one inside the room she wasn't so sure.

-X-

Aqua stopped in her tracks in the middle of the classic metallic looking hallways as she heard two familiar voices.

She quickly pulled Iolite back towards the elevator.

"What's wrong?" Iolite whispered, making sure to keep her volume down this time.

Aqua looked around for anyway to get out this predicament. "Amber and Tourmaline are here.", Aqua felt bad about hiding from her friend but knew Amber was still loyal to her diamond so she stay put.

The light blue gem could here the voices coming closer and instantly made a decision. She pressed a buzzer next to someone's door. A peridot answered the door and Aqua quickly whispered a few pleads to her asking for access.

The peridot hesitantly let them in, Amber and tourmaline passing by just as the door closed.

Amber snapped her head to the side as the door closed. The orange gem worried for her friend who was still missing.

 _I hope she's ok…_

Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard a beeping sound emanating from the pocket of her dress.

It was her supervisor.

A BREAK IN OCURRED EARLIER TODAY. OUR POWER IS CUT OFF AND SURVEILLANCE VIDEOS HAVE BEEN STOLEN. AQUAMARINE AND AMBER ARE TO REPORT TO ZIRCONIA ASAP.

Amber read the message quickly and showed it to tourmaline.

"Think it has anything to do with our case", she asked the scientist.

"Emm,WAIT, yes! When the robbery was happening in the lab, the power went out". Tourmaline was suddenly hopeful, this could possibly present a new lead for their failing case.

"Ok, go back to the lab, I'll meet with zirconia and report back", she then added, muttering, "maybe I'll even find Aqua while I'm out"..

-X-

Aqua stared the screen of her communicator, "me and Amber have been called in to see zirconia about the break in.

The two gems were now in Aquas room. The room was even more plain that iolites, being a single room with a sofa at the left side. Iolite was sitting cross legged on the seat attempting to get back to where she was in the surveillance videos before Jade had appeared.

Her partner had just been sitting next to her looking over at Iolite and the screen every now and then.

The ex-scientist was already passed where she had been before and suddenly stopped the video.

"Look", she said to Aquamarine, pointing enthusiastically at the screen.

"Is that the peridot I worked with?", Aqua asked. The lime green gem was standing next to another taller gem, leaning on her slightly as they walked.

"Yes, and that's the gem I'm looking for", Aqua looked back at Iolite blankly, unsure why this was relevant, "we can use this! Tell them what we are trying to do and promise that once we succeed, they can be together, they're obviously more than just 'acquainted'", Iolite quickly pointed out to the clueless gem.

"Oh, that makes sense…oooh that must have been what peridot meant when she said she 'had better things to do', haha", the light blue gem laughed at the realisation.

"I know where she lives, let's go", Iolite said standing up.

"Ok", Aqua got up and then stumbled a little bit, she had been sitting on her legs which had caused them to go numb.

Iolite bit back a laugh as she watched her partners near fall.

"You ok?" She said, smirking at Aqua.

"Let's go", Aqua replied, pretending nothing had happened.

-X-

 **AN: so this took an incredibly long time. I kinda lost enthusiasm for writing and then regained it after reading some other fics. If anyone ever reads this, thanks!**

 **Ps. I got Pokemon go, it's amazing! It's taking over the world…**


	11. Catching on

**AN: hello again :)**

-X-

Peridot made her way back to the lab and saw tourmaline arrive back without Amber as she approached. By the time she reached meeting room 2, the green and red gem was already inside. Nobody else was here.

"Where's the others?", she asked tourmaline in a monotone.

"Aqua is still missing, Amber has gone to meet her supervisor and I don't know where Jade is,", tourmaline explained.

"I take it, Amber has gone to see her supervisor about the break in.", peridot stated knowingly.

"Yes, how did you know about that?", tourmaline asked, forgetting that her green teammate had been sent there by Jade.

"I was there", peridot thought about what she had seen earlier, "and I have a feeling aquamarine was too".

"What?", tourmaline asked the technician, clearly confused.

"There was two gems and I'm reasonably sure one of them was Aquamarine", peridot replied, matter of factly.

"Well…..what do we do?", the scientist asked her team mate. If she was honest with herself, she was sure there wasn't anything that could be done with this new information.

"…..wait for the others to figure it out", peridot said eventually.

"Sounds like a plan."

-X-

Jade pushed the door open to the recreation room more roughly than she intended and marched up to the counter.

"Jaaaade, back so soon?", the cheerful gem infront of her greeted.

Jade put her hands out flat on the counter and looked spinel straight in the eyes.

"You know why I'm here spinel. You know why I left too".

"I have no idea what your talking about, Honey",spinel replied steadily wiping the counter with a cloth she seemingly pulled out of thin air, all the while holding eye contact with the soldier gem in front of her.

"Who were those gems?", Jade asked slowly as though if she were to say it faster the red gem wouldn't understand.

"You'll have to be more specific", spinel stated with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. The scarlet gem finally looked away from Jade, bending down to put the cloth in a compartment under the counter.

"stop playing with me.", Jade said just bordering on a yell, her frustration evident.

"Trust me, Miss Jade, you'll know when I'm playing,", at that the green gem gave up and decided to talk to her teammates then come back. It's not like Spinel is going anywhere.

-X-

Jade finally arrived back just to find out that not only was Aqua still missing but Amber had been called away too.

The green gem asked if there was any other information she needed to know.

 _Surely this mission isn't that hopeless?_

"We think Aquamarine is working with the theif", peridot told Jade in her usual monotone.

"Wait, why?", Jade was curious now.

"There was a break in at the surveillance department and peridots sure she saw Aqua"

Jade thought back to earlier while tourmaline and peridot squabbled pointlessly, out of boredom. Something about peridot being able to speak for herself.

"I saw them earlier too, they ran from me. I didn't see the one dressed in light blue' face but it could have been Aqua. It would explain why she's missing.",

It was quickly decided that this would be the assumption from now on but they wouldn't report it to the authorities until they were sure.

Now they just had to tell Amber.

-X-

"Where is Aquamarine?", Amber had walked into zirconias office about 30 seconds ago and had just been awkwardly waiting to be addressed since.

"I-I don't know", Amber replied quietly. Zirconia was giving off an intimidating aura as per usual.

"Why not?", Amber felt like zirconias smooth words were cutting slits in her.

"she left our meeting area upon us hitting a stalemate. She didn't come back.", Amber told her superior, trying to act like Zirconia wasn't the least bit intimidating.

"You hit a stake mate? In the robbery case?"

"Yes, this case is proving to be extremely difficult though we now believe the break in here may be related", Ambers voice was starting to sound like peridots.

"Have you checked Aquas rest area?", Amber noted that her superior had used Aquas nickname but thought nothing of it, she didn't however catch the slight soften in her voice when she said it.

"Yes and my teammate was checking the recreation room she had been headed to when she left.", Amber was slowly starting to gain a small amount of confidence in front of her supervisor but could still feel that intimidating aura.

"How long before the break in did she go missing?", Amber once again lost her confidence as zirconias tone returned to sounding like metaphorical knives.

"…the night before", Amber wasn't dumb, she knew what Zirconia was hinting at but she refused to believe it. There is no way her closest (and only) friend was a criminal.

"Have you considered the possibility that she was involved?", Zirconia asked, confirming ambers suspicions.

"No…", the two gems looked at each other for a few seconds, Amber itching to leave and zirconia trying to decide what to say next.

"Go back to your team, start investigating our break in as part of your existing case," she sighed eventually, "I suggest you talk to your team mates about the situation with Aquamarine".

Amber finally left, sighing a breath of relief as soon as the door closed behind her. She started to rush towards the Lab.

-X-

Zirconia moved some papers around on her desk half heartedly.

"Aqua, what've you gotten yourself into.."

-X

 **AN: okaaay, thanks a bunch to the people who followed this story, you guys are great and just wanted to let you know this fic has now exceeded 10,000 words which I'm gonna count as a great achievement and also I got over 400 views which is great. Turns out round snot twenty people read every chapter so if anyone's been reading this since the beginning, thanks!**

 **Have a good day!**


	12. Pick up the pieces

**AN: autocorrect changed about to round snot on the last chapter and I just realised and I'm dying…**

-X-

Spinel was relieved when it came to closing time. The first thing she did was race to Iolites rest area.

There was no way she was going back to her own rest area, not after lying for Iolite. She had no idea what the blue gem had been up to and why the surveillance expert was now helping her but she wanted in.

She got the feeling there would be serious repercussions for covering for Iolite and figured if she was gonna go down, she might as well go down fighting.

She chapped on the door, knowing full well that every buzz was documented.

 _Gotta do things the old fashioned way, I guess_

The door slid open to reveal Iolite, wearing the same hoodie and Pleated skirt she seemed to wear these days.

Aqua and Iolite had no choice but to relocate back to Iolites place due to the fact that all Iolites research was there.

"Let me in, please", the scarlet gem said bluntly.

"Since you said please", Iolite replied,sarcastically before stepping out of the way to allow spinel entrance. The ex-scientist was confused as to how spinel had known had to find her.

 _I didn't tell her where I live, did I?_

"Hello, Aqua", spinel greeted the other gem sitting down on the sofa next to her.

"OK, so why are you here?", Iolite asked, skipping any pleasantries.

"Well, y'know after you ran away from that soldier, someone had to cover for you", spinel said playfully, "now, I want in with whatever your doing".

Iolite thought about spinels request while massaging her temples. She had never planned on having Aqua in on this but now not only were they about to rope in Albite and Peridot, but spinel wanted to help? This was _NOT_ in the plan.

The way Iolite saw it, the more people that knew, the higher the chance of the diamonds finding out.

"Fine, but nobody else is getting in", Iolite responded, hesitantly.

"We're about to go out ,by the way", aquamarine commented after Iolite and spinels conversation had ended.

"Where ya goin'?", spinel asked, casually resting her arm on the back of the chair.

"To blackmail people,"Aqua said in an almost singsongy tone.

"We are not blackmailing anyone. I think….if it comes to it.", Iolite told the others, she hadn't planned this bit out very well.

"Who and why?", spinel questioned, chill as ever. She may be laid back but she wanted to know what she was working towards.

"We're trying to weaken so diamonds to essentially just make them less feared-"

"Easier to push around.", spinel interrupted.

"Basically, and this gem has the power to do that. She can weaken or strengthen any gem she wants.", Iolite paused for an unnecessary breath.

"I'm not sure if she knows because there is nothing in her records about it but it's possible she knows and just hasn't told anyone"

"So how do you know this?", Aqua asked the dark blue gem.

"Science. I can tell from any gems genetic, or gemetic as would be the more appropriate word, code exactly what powers they will have. It's kind of my specialty." She said adding the last bit after a long pause.

"Wow", the other two gems said simultaneously.

"Okay, let's go", Iolite started walking towards the door, Spinel and Aqua following after her.

-X-

The three gems walked down a small backstreet together, having deemed main streets too risky.

"So do I have to change my outfit?", spjnel asked looking down at the other two gems' matching apparel.

The scarlet gem was currently wearing black leggings with a dark pink shirt, the edge of her cherry red hair falling almost in line with the slanted maroon collar on the shirt. The cuffs of her sleeve were also maroon with a small white diamond on each one.

"It would be good", Iolite relied after inspecting spinels outfit for a minute.

"I'm not wearing a skirt", Spinel phased a jumper on that was the same cherry colour as her hair leaving her black leggings on.

"Ok, that's fine", Iolite commented, quietly, trying to stay aware of her surroundings.

A few moments later they arrived at albites building.

Once they reached Albites door Iolite sharply hit her knuckles against the cold metal entrance.

Albite opened the door to the strangers, confused as to why they didn't buzz.

The White Gem was wearing a silver floor length dress. The dress had frilly straps hanging down Albites Arm and her chalk-White hair was in a long side ponytail that reached her knees.

Spinel observed the black outline of a diamond on her chest, signifying she worked under white diamond. Aqua just stood awkwardly behind Iolite, having never met such a regal gem.

"Hello, can I help you?" She asked, eventually.

"Hello, may we come in? We would like to discuss with you", Iolite asked, matching Albites sophistication with ease.

"Discuss what?", the White gem asked with suspicion in her voice.

"A business proposal of sorts", Iolite waited patiently while Albite eyed the three smaller gems, not that spjnel was much smaller than her.

"Come in", she said finally, turning and signalling they follow.

Aqua and spinel looked around in awe at the room. It was about three times the size of Iolites room with two long sofas and a tv-like screen. Everything was in varying shades of black, grey and white with the occasional lick of silver.

There was a luxurious looking circular bed in the far corner that had a silvery curtain going around it.

"I used to have a room like this. I got down graded.", Iolite said, shrugging. She preferred small spaces anyway and hadn't particularly liked the bigger one.

"Please, sit down.", Albite said in a gorgeously silky voice.

"What is your proposal?".

"To put it simply, we want you to help us weaken the diamonds. We know you can.", Iolite summarised her plan. Thinking about it, she realised she hadn't really told anyone what the plan exactly was. Oh well, she'd get to that later.

"…..why should I?", the White gem asked, cautiously.

"We know about peridot", Iolite liked getting straight to the point.

Albite visibly flinched at the other gems words, her mind starting to go a million miles an hour trying to locate where they had slipped up and what this could mean.

"If you help us, laws can be changed so you can be together", Aqua added in a much softer tone than Iolites.

Albite thought about it for a few seconds. There's many ways this could go wrong but if it goes right? The possibilities are limitless.

She made her decision.

"I'll do it", she told the others, confidently, "but I'll need to talk to peridot".

"When will you next see her", spinel asked while rubbing her hand over the smooth fabric of the sofa.

"Tonight, I can ask her then"

-X-

Amber finally made it back to Meeting room 2 and found her remaining teammates waiting quite impatiently for her arrival.

"So what happened?", tourmaline questioned once Amber had sat down.

"Zirconia says we are to start investigating the break there alongside the break in here and…" Amber took a long breath, "..she thinks Aqua is involved".

"So do we.", peridot replied to the orange gem now wearing a disappointed look on her face.

"I'm not sure whether to be surprised or not. There has been rumours about her getting in trouble before…", Amber said looking down at the table.

"Ok so if Aqua is part of these robberies, we should start monitoring her rest area in case she goes back", Jade said, taking the leader position again.

"Amber, do you know anyone other than spinel that Aqua might have spoke to recently", she asked the orange gem.

"Emmm, maybe the other gem who usually hangs around with Spinel", she tried to remember the blue gems name, "IOLITE, her name was Iolite!"

"Peridot, pull up files on any gem called 'Iolite'", Jade commanded, authoritatively.

"Ok", peridots fingers rotated in to holographic screen, the green gem using her remaining finger to type figugures onto the semi-solid screen.

"There's only one", the technician made the screen turn around to show the others a picture of a dark blue gem. She had short fringe ending just above her eyebrows and the rest of her hair in a tight bun.

Her look was completed with a lab coat similar to tourmalines except with no logos or insignia of any sort. The gem was smiling.

"That's definitely her", Jade confirmed, Amber nodding in agreement, across from her.

"It's says she's a scientist who specialises in gem creation", peridot told the others.

"Like me?", tourmaline quizzed, she hadn't expected the robber to be a scientist, why hadn't they considered this.

"Do you think she's trying to claim my research as her own?"

Peridot read the information again "I'm not sure, it says she's been discharged from her position, it does not, however, say what that position was."

"As far as we know she could of just been some random scientist who wants to make it big", Amber suggested, not very helpfully.

"I'll download this file and link the security systems in Aquas building to my limb enhancers, so I'll get an alert whenever someone goes into her room.", peridot got to work putting various commands into her computers.

"I'm so glad we're finally getting somewhere" tourmaline commented, almost thankful that her teammate turned out to be with the robber.

"Okay, Amber, me and you are going back to the recreation room to ask spinel more about this Iolite",she looked to her sides where tourmaline and peridot were, "you two will try and find more in the system about her and Aqua".

" _Yes, ma'am_ ", Amber muttered, standing up.

And with that, they once again went their separate ways.

-X-

 **AN: you know this chapter was a lot easier to write than normal, I'm not sure why. It's also my longest ever chapter. Thanks to jazpan for their review!**

 **Fun fact: Albite is called 'the stone of resolute action' and is said to give courage and confidence when confronting the unknown.**


	13. New friends: The second one

**AN: guess who's back, back again…**

-X-

"Do you think she'll help?", spinel whispered to the taller gem in front of her. "I hope so", Albite said, looking up ahead of them at the other two gems.

Aqua was leading them on a more hidden route to Albite and Peridots usual meeting place, she knew where all the security cameras blind spots are and so was able to direct them on a path where they couldn't be seen. At least not by cameras.

When the four finally arrived, they all took similar positions leaning on the wall, with the exception of spinel who had decided that that walk was too long and was now sitting on the floor.

"Just a little while longer", Albite whispered, clearly nervous.

"Relax, whitey", spinel said, peering up at the aristocrat.

Albite sighed and slouched further down the wall, she looked up at the stars above her. This was the only place in the city where you could even see the stars.

A few moments later they heard heavy footsteps coming round the corner. Peridot stopped in her tracks upon spotting the other gems with her lover.

Albite started walking towards her, "peridot, we need to talk. It's important.", she glanced back at the others while saying the last sentence.

"Your working with THEM", peridot yelled at Albite. "Sshhh, peridot don't yell, we'll get caught", Albite whispered frantically to peridot while the others watched nervously from behind her.

"Maybe that's a good thing, they're criminals, in case you didn't know", peridot said in a more hushed tone than before. "Actually, I don't know who she is", peridot stated, glaring at spinel.

"Peridot, they want to help us…" Albite said before grabbing the green gem by the waist to pull her closer, "they want to weaken the diamonds so that they can be pushed out of power- so we can change the rules"

Peridot looked up into Albites jet black eyes. "Will you work with us?" Peridot didn't need to think about her answer, she already knew what she wanted. The same thing she had wanted since her strange little relationship with Albite had begun. "Ok"

-X-

The five gems had moved back to Albites rest area, deeming it safest after peridot told the others how 'team Jade' as Aqua had called them, knew about Aqua, Iolite and the possibility of Spinels involvement.

"I'll go over this again later, but this is the plan. Aqua will break into the surveillance headquarters and cut of surveillance white diamonds rest area. At the same time peridot will shut the power off from inside the building, spinel will scout ahead and make sure we're clear to move in at which point me and Albite will enter white diamonds rest area, preferably while she's resting, and weaken her. After that we'll poof her and keep her gem until we have the other diamonds."

"Wait, what if there's gaurds? I can't take them down!", spinel pointed out. "Yes, I was thinking that. As much as I hate it we will probably need more hel-"

"AMBER. Amber can help!", Aqua excitedly interrupted their newly appointed leader.

Iolite though about it for a second. If Amber and Aqua were good friends it lowered the chance of betrayal. "Ok, you find Amber and ask for her help", she told the hopeful looking gem sitting on the floor across from her.

"Yessss", Aqua relied, clenching her fists and grinning happily.

Albite took a long breath before talking, "ok. We can do this.", she said confidently, smiling down at her girlfriend who was nodding along with her.

Peridot looked over at Aqua, "Amber will be off work soon".

"Your right, I'm going to her rest area and waiting there.", Aqua scrambled to her feet and started towards the door.

"Be back fast.", she heard Iolite tell her as she exited.

-X-

The sky above the city was still dark as Aqua waited in a camera blind spot in an alley next to ambers building.

Amber was typing out message after message to her friend, unaware of the fact that Aqua had left her communicator at her rest area. She was still sure Aqua couldn't possibly be a criminal and was determined to get an answer.

Suddenly the orange gem felt herself be flung round the corner. Standing in front of her was Aqua, holding her by the forearms to keep her close.

"aqua! Where have you been? I was so worried and everyone was sure your working with the enemy, that-that's not true, is it?", amber rushed her words, the surveillance worker exited and relieved at the same time.

"shhh, you have to be quiet. I need your help.", aqua ignored her friends question, still holding her arms close.

"To do what?", amber had a felling she already knew the answer to her earlier question.

"I'm working with Iolite-hear me out-", amber had tried to pull away from aqua after hearing Iolites name causing Aqua to simply hold her tighter, "- we're trying to weaken the diamonds, if we succeed then the diamonds can be pushed out of power. Homeworld will be _free."_

Amber thought about Aqua's request while looking down at the light blue hands holding her in place. The only light was coming from the main street next to them casting a yellowish glow on the two gems.

"no.", amber yanked herself away from Aqua and took step back.

"wha-what? Amber, please, I-", aqua started to follow her friend who had already started to walk toward her building again.

"Aqua, I already said no. I wont tell anyone your plans but I'm not helping either.", amber said as the pale blue gem caught up to her.

"but we need you, _I_ need you," aqua lowered her voice, " _you're my only friend_ ".

"really? You seemed pretty friendly with spinel and I wouldn't be surprised if shes also helping Iolite", amber retaliated.

"well…", Aqua couldn't think of an answer.

The tangerine gem sighed, the two had been standing outside ambers building for a while now, "you should go, the security systems back up, as I'm sure you know"

Aqua looked around her, the place she was currently standing was I full view of the security cameras.

"I'll delete the footage tomorrow, don't worry", amber said, seeing the terrified look on Aqua's face.

"…see you later, amber", aqua said sadly, starting to walk back the way she had come.

"stay safe, Aquamarine", amber called as her friend rounded the corner.

-X-

As soon as Aqua was out of sight of cameras she slid down a wall onto the floor. The blue gem bit her nails as tears threatened to spill down her cheeks. She didn't know why ambers response hurt so much, it didn't really matter if she said no because they could get someone else. But she did know.

 _"your my only friend"_

Amber had been Aquas friend for as long as she could remember, she never thought Amber would refuse to help after such a long time. she couldn't even remember how they met, she just assumed it was something work related.

After siting for a while, she eventually picked herself up and headed back to Albites to break the news.

-X-

"Ma,am, we've caught something on the camera's that might help the team investigating the break in", Zirconia looked up to see the Turquoise currently taking over Ambers position.

"send me the file, I don't have time to come see it from your work station", Zirconia commanded, the teal gem leaving the room faster than one could say 'Turquoise'.

A few moments later she received an alert on a holographic screen floating above the right side of her desk.

Zirconia swiped the screen over to her and tapped the alert, a video appearing over it.

She watched as a gem she recognised as amber walked toward her building being followed closely by her missing surveillance expert.

She observed the screen carefully as the blue gem hesitantly walked away from amber before closing the file and deleting off her system.

Keeping a serious face and calm stance she got up and walked to what was usually Ambers work area.

"Leave", she said walking up to Turquoise who quickly scrambled of the metallic chair and almost ran towards the door.

Zirconia went straight to ambers computer, finding the file with the security footage and deleted it.

She walked out the room to see Turquoise standing patiently, waiting for her.

"tell nobody about this. Ever.", she said to the nervous gem, " and for stars sake, relax"

-X-

"well ,what are we going to do now!", peridot yelled.

Aqua had just briefed them on what happened with amber and everyone except Iolite was now feeling somewhat flustered.

"we'll just find someone else", Iolite replied calmly.

"who?", Spinel asked. Everyone turned to look at Iolite, awaiting her answer.

"…..Jade",Iolite saide eventually.

"Jade? Why her?", Aqua asked.

"yeah, I don't trust her", spinel said quickly.

" Its going to be pretty hard for ' _team jade'_ to function without _jade_ ", Iolite told the others

"oh yeah, plus I'm pretty sure jade, like, _hates_ the way thing are", Aqua reassured the others.

The five rebels had decided to take a break for a bit and continue their work the next day. Peridot hadn't been too keen, wanting this to been done and dealt with as soon as possible.

"I have Emberin", Albite sang as she walked out a room resembling a kitchen with a tray in hand.

"eugh, I don't want any, thanks.", spinel said, looking on in disgust at the drink.

"more for us, I guess", Albite replied, carefully handing out cups to the others, peridot shaking her head at the white gems offer and the remaining gems murmuring thank you's to the aristocrat.

The rest of the night was spent drinking Emberin (with the exception of Spinel and peridot) and talking about their hopes for the future, for the first time in a long time everyone just sat back and had a good time.

-X-

After finding the recreation room to be closed the previous day, Jade had gone back, this time alone.

She entered the room to see Spinel lying across the counter on her side.

"why are you….nevermind, time to talk", Jade stopped walking about 4 feet away from the counter and waited for Spinel to make a move.

The aforementioned gem swung her body over the counter and started to walk towards Jade.

"sure, lets go to my rest area"

The green gem was surprised. She hadn't expected spinel to be so compliant. She followed the other gem, not having any idea where spinel actually lived.

-X-

Amber sat in meeting room 2 alone, jade and peridot hadn't showed up yet and tourmaline was talking to her superior.

She was thinking about what had happened with aqua the night before. The orange gem had been debating with herself whether or not she had done the right thing since seeing her friend.

Not only that but she was confused. When she went to her work area to 'check on some things', the footage from last night was already deleted and when she asked the turquoise covering for her, the cyan gem had said nobody but her had been in the room.

Had aqua already been? Or was someone else on Aqua's side that amber wasn't aware of? And why? Who could it be, anyway? Turquoise, perhaps?

 _Who knows._

She heard the door open and close before another gem sat down in front of her. It was tourmaline, clearly finished with her boss.

"what happened?", amber asked the tense looking gem.

"moissanite said if I don't solve the case and get back to work soon, I'll be replaced", tourmaline replied looking down at the table.

"oh", Amber had only heard rumours of what happened to gems after they were replaced but she certainly never saw a replaced gem again afterwards.

"it wont come to that." Amber said confidently to the other gem, "I wont let it"

Tourmaline looked up at the other gem with surprised look on her face, "thank you".

Maybe it was time amber made some new friends.

-X-

 **AN: so I re-beat my 'most words in a chapter' record, making this the biggest chapter yet. Annnnd I got Deviant Art. I actually only got it to comment on ssjgokux20's fantastic 'Steven Lazuli' art. In case you didn't know that's an awesome fanfic by Candy Vegetto, which I toatally recommend reading!**

 **Is everyone enjoying Summer of Steven? I sure am ;p**


	14. Replacement?

**AN: I got 600 views on this now ;p**

-X-

Jade became more and more suspicious as they walked. She had imagined spinel lived some where basic, a small plain rest area in a small plain housing area but spinel appered to be leading them to somewhere more suited to a Sapphire or Lapis Lazuli.

They eventually reached a tall building and entered through a blue automatic door and headed to the lift. Jade watched, bewildered as spinel knocked on the metallic door.

 _Why would someone knock on their own door?_

A few seconds later a white gem opened the door and gestured from them to come in.

Jade halted to a stand still upon seeing the others in the room. She recognised everyone but the white gem who it now clicked in her head, probably owned this rest area.

"heya, jade! Long time, no see!", aqua greeted the shocked gem.

"ok, so I knew about Aqua but, peridot? Your working with them?", jade questioned the green gem sitting statue-like on the sofa.

"only since last night", peridot shrugged.

"And we are hoping you will choose to work with us too", Iolite said, a cup of emberin in hand.

"you.." jade scowled at the blue gem, "why would I want to work with you?"

"cos we're tryna free the gem empire" Aqua was bouncing in her seat next to Iolite having clearly had too much sugar from the sweet drink Albite had been happily supplying all night.

Jade stared at the energetic gem and walked over to the other sofa. She sat down and faced Iolite, "and how do you plan on doing that?".

Spinel spoke up next, "Albite here can weaken any gem she wants!" the red gem proclaimed, "so we're going after the diamonds!"

"The only issue we are having is the case of actually getting to the diamonds to weaken them, the plan is completely figured out though, now we just need another scout to secure a path to the target. We cant have albite being attacked on her way." Peridot didn't even want to think of what would happen if such a thing were to occur.

"And so you asked me?" Jade was only slightly less confused.

"yes, well it gets rid of one more person trying to find us", Albite replied in her smooth tone.

"good point….yeah, ok I'll do it", Jade decided casually, leaning back on the sofa with her hands on the back of her head.

"oh, ok, that's great… wasn't expecting you to agree so quickly" Iolite finished her drink before informing the newcomer of the plan.

-X-

"why is jade still not here!" Tourmaline was starting to get panicky, threats from earlier still hanging over her head and no sign the gem who was basically their leader.

"why is peridot still not here…" Amber muttered, typing into her communicator at a rapid speed, "neither of them are answering their messages".

"oh well, this is just fantastic" the scientist exclaimed, sarcastically.

"im gonna die, and its gonna be _their_ fault".

Amber looked up at the other gem before speaking in an almost too happy tone, "lets not think of impending doom and instead try and actually do some work".

Tourmaline took a long unneeded breath in an attempt to calm herself. It didn't work.

"Amber, I don't want to die, am I gonna die!? TELL ME".

Amber reached her arms across the table and gripped tourmalines shoulders, "I already told you, I wont let that happen".

Tourmaline looked in ambers bright orange eyes and finally managed to calm herself. She missed the other gems brief grip once it was gone, ambers hold had been gentle but firm and strangely warm. She'd never felt anything like it.

"ok, enough waiting around, lets go to Iolites rest place, see if we can find her."

"uuh, yeah"

-X-

The two arrived at the thieves rest area and amber pressed the buzzer. There was no answer. Amber wasn't particularly surprised,

"well that was a bust", amber lightly kicked the door to iolites room, hoping that by same miracle that action would grant them access.

"so what now?" tourmaline asked, possibly as close to happy as she'd ever been in her life. She had already decided to add Amber to her currently empty 'aquaintance' list.

"I guess we go back and try and find more info" Amber had decided that if push comes to shove, she would out Aqua if only to save Tourmaline. She was trying not to think what that would mean for her other friend.

 _Would I just be trading Aquas life for tourmalines?_

The orange gem rapidly pushed the thought out of her head, "lets look at Aqua and Iolites file again, there has to be something worth noting"

They quickly headed back to their meeting area.

"okaaay, you do Aqua and I'll do iolite", amber picked up her screen and Tourmaline copied a second later.

"this file is as furtive as its owner" Amber was looking through iolites file for new info but to no avail. This gem apparently had no acquaintances, no work mates, she'd been given a pearl once and had promptly given her to someone else, she had no recreation area's listed as 'favourite RA', not even spinels. There was just nothing.

"Having any luck?" Amber looked over at the confused seeming gem across from her.

"no, I possibly have less than you" tourmaline slid her screen over to amber.

Amber expression quickly twisted into confusion. Aquas file had clearly been changed recently. It now had nothing but the words 'surveillance expert'. It didn't even say what quadrant as it should of.

"that's…odd", Amber remembered the video that had been deleted. Could this have been done by Aqua? If amber recalled aqua hadn't headed in the direction of the surveillance building. She supposed she could of come back but it seemed unlikely, she wouldn't have been able to do that without being caught on camera.

There was only one file deleted. It had to be an inside job.

"lets go back to my work place and check out the security footage again. Someone is covering for aqua."

-X-

The rebel group decided to wait a couple of days until attacking, giving jade and spinel but mostly spinel a chance to touch up their fighting skills.

The others just casually lounging around somewhat nervously.

They all knew that this was just the eye of the hurricane.

 _There is a storm coming._

 _-X-_

 **Ok this is quite a bit shorter than my last chapter but hopefully the next one will be longer again. Lets see if I can keep these last chapters 2k+. I'm not entirely sure how many chapters are left. Possibly not many but we'll see how it goes.**

 **Enjoy your day!**


	15. Bribery

**AN: so this took a while...**

-X-

"Amber. Tourmaline, yes? Why are you here?" Amber and tourmaline were standing in zirconia's desk, waiting for permission to speak.

"We think somebody here is covering for Aquamarine. Most of her file has been deleted and a video I was looking for too" amber told the superior gem.

"And what video exactly was that?" Amber suddenly realised her mistake and desperately tried to cover it up with a reason of why she would be looking for a surveillance video.

"I-it was a video outside of Aqua's rest area, I wanted to find out if anyone else had been there" she said eventually.

Zirconia smirked behind the hand she was leaning on. Even if she didn't know amber was lying anyway, she would have been able to figure it out from her terrible attempt to do so.

"Ok, well, I don't know who could have been covering for her. Maybe you should talk to some of the others?"

Tourmaline piped up quickly "maybe we can talk to the gem that would have been watching Aqua's rest area".

Amber looked over to Zirconia for approval, said gem nodding slowly before speaking, "knock yourself out[H1] ".

The orange gem turned and headed out the door, "thank you, ma'am".

Tourmaline leaned in to Amber to whisper to her, "Are we really going to knock ourselves out?"

"No, silly, it's just an idiom".

-X-

"Hello…I forgot your name" Amber had let herself and tourmaline into her old room so they could talk to Turquoise who was slightly annoyed at the other two's impromptu entrance.

"Greetings, why are you back?" Turquoise chirped.

"We need to talk to you. Do you know anything about information on Aqua's-Aquamarine's file going missing?" amber asked, wasting no time.

"No" she answered honestly enough. She did, however, know about the video file zirconia had deleted but they hadn't asked about that.

"What about a deleted video?" Tourmaline questioned a few moments later.

Oh.

"No, I know nothing" was she sweating?

Turquoise had never lied before, it was a very odd experience and every ounce of her conscious told her it was wrong.

"Em ok"

After talking with the rest of the security department- which took a while due to their being so many gems in that field of work- Amber and Tourmaline decided to give up on the place.

All was not lost, though. Before leaving the building tourmaline whispered to amber to let her know she had an idea.

"Ok, so I was thinking, 'what could make someone give us information?' and I realised that was the exact kind of thinking we need to be doing!" she exclaimed, boastfully.

"Are you suggesting bribery?" Amber looked quizzically at the other gem.

"You know, they say money makes the world go round…" Tourmaline glanced at the orange gem from the corner of her eye as they walked.

"Okay. I'll see what I can do. Pull some strings, etcetera" Amber wasn't entirely sure where she get any money since she had basically none but she was willing to try some things.

-X-

Amber and tourmaline walked into an old building which tourmaline immediately recognised as Blue topaz and co.'s base. The two walked in to the same clearing as before where blue topaz, tanzanite and Lazurite were lounging around, the latter two sitting close and whispering to each other.

"Hello! Time to pay your taxes!" Amber practically sang as they entered.

"Taxes? Ha- you're in the wrong place honey" she turned slightly to look at Tourmaline, "Long time, no see, watermelon".

Tourmaline narrowed her eyes at the nickname, "it really hasn't been that long".

"So why are you really here?" Blue topaz queried, directing the question at Amber now.

"Look, I don't know how Aqua knew where to find you but she told me and she also told me that the three of you are very wealthy. Our proposal is that you give us some of that wealth and we make sure nobody else finds out about this place." Amber responded, brief in her explanation.

"Proposal…ha, more like scam" The blue gem weighed her options quickly, "Fine. Tanzanite bring some of that money".

Tanzanite pulled herself away from Laz and brought over a wad of money. Just from looking at it amber could tell it was about the gem equivalent of 15,000 dollars.

"Is this enough?" Blue topaz asked casually.

"Yesss" amber said, taking the money with excitement shining in her eyes.

"Okay, thank you, let's go" The orange gem spun on her heel and headed back the direction they had just came.

"Eh...bye" Tourmaline quickly caught up to her new friend, "so what now?"

"I've got some other places to go. You should go back to MR2" they had decided not long after Aqua's disappearance to refer to the meeting room as MR2 so as though to not waste time.

"Right. Ok. See you soon."

-X-

Amber eventually arrived back to see tourmaline staring blankly at the pile of money on the table.

"I'm back".

Tourmaline looked up at her only remaining team mate, a small smile tugging at her lips as she did so, "what did you get?"

"Well, Amnesty for whoever comes forward, and…" She pulled a small round object out her pocket and showed it to tourmaline.

"A…pearl?" she looked on in amazement at the lavender coloured gem in ambers hand,

 _How did she get a pearl?!_

Before she could say anything more a blinding white light filled the room as the pearl started to take form.

In front of Amber stood Lavender Pearl. She had pastel purple skin with bright purple hair pulled up into a bushy ponytail. She was wearing a dark plum coloured, long sleeved leotard with thigh highs the same shade of purple as her hair.

She quickly took in her surroundings "Hello. "Amber sensed the

"Heyo, you're not going to be with us long- hopefully- but we need your help" Amber proposed to the servant gem.

"Anything. Can you specify?" Lavender pearls question was aimed at amber, she hadn't actually acknowledged tourmaline yet besides a small glance.

"We just need you to be a bribe" Tourmaline walked up to the pearl and circled her slowly.

The pastel skinned gem started to feel panic rise in her. She didn't like being examined like this, it made her feel like an object that the watermelon gem was trying to decide whether to keep or throw out.

 _It made her remember that's all she was._

Amber sensed the pearls discomfort and gently tugged tourmalines arm, coaxing her away from the new gem.

"What's your name?" She asked with an honest smile.

"Lavender pearl" the purple gems artificial heart slowed down to its usual steady, unnoticeable pace.

"Great! We'll call you 'Lavender'!" Amber exclaimed in a honey sweet tone.

"Of course what a great idea" The orange gems smile faltered slightly as she caught on to what lavender was doing, it was the same thing she had been doing for the past 4000 years.

 _"Always be happy, if only to keep other gems happy"_

The words her first friend had said to her after their first meeting were still ever present in her mind. She realised that this pearl had never had a choice in the matter, though. Inability to keep your master happy could get a pearl shattered, and though most would just give their pearl away, some would have the pearl shattered as a warning of sorts to their next one.

"You can relax y'know" Amber said softly, "you don't have to be miss perfect around us"

Tourmaline looked quizzingly at amber, having just assumed that this is the way pearls always were-Content, obliging, proud to serve- but she didn't miss the way Lavenders shoulders drooped down and her entire composure become more unwound and less stiff.

"….thank you, ma'am"

"Heh, call me amber" The aforementioned gem corrected, "and this is Tourmaline".

She gestured to the gem standing behind her, "hello…" Lavender glanced warily at her before regaining eye contact with Amber.

"So I'm a bribe?" Amber cringed inwardly at how objectified that statement sounded before replying with a hesitant 'yes' and briefing Lavender on the situation.

Amber told the other how she had it set up that they could broadcast early tomorrow about the reward. Having nothing to do until tomorrow, the three of them just sat around for a while. Every now and then Amber would fall asleep and tourmaline and lavender would just watch, not entirely sure what was happening.

At one point Tourmaline decided Amber was dying and 'saved' her by shaking her shoulders till she woke. After that Amber moved to the other side of the table and continued to sleep.

-X-

They were about to broadcast. Lavender was nervous, she was new and hadn't talked to many people since being made and suddenly she was all too aware that millions, probably billions of criticising eyes would be watching her.

All she was to do was carry the money and look pretty while Amber talked but even that seemed terrifying.

"Greetings, my name is Amber Facet-4A5Q Cut-2AL and I am requesting your attention for an announcement."

Amber went on to show some pictures and explain what exactly she wanted. It didn't last long and before they knew it the three gems were heading back to the meeting room to wait.

-X-

The rebels watched on Albites large screen as Amber showed all but the white gems pictures. Aqua watched somewhat sadly, still upset over her friends refusal to help.

While the others just watched casually, interested to see what prize was being offered. The whole group gasped as Lavender walked into view holding a large amount of currency, barely hearing ambers promise of amnesty.

All except Spinel started murmuring to each other wondering how on homeworld amber had managed to get not only such a large amount of money but a pearl too.

Spinel was fixated not on how the pearl was attained but they pearl herself. She very rarely saw pearls and the ones she did see, she found to be too dressed up, most of the rich gems who had pearls liked to showcase their wealth by giving their pearl fancy and complicated outfits.

She decided she liked the way this one looked, everything from her messy hair to her lilac stockings.

She thought back to when jade and her were training. Jade was so good and she could barely do anything, she had a small stiletto knife and despite the simplicity of the weapon just couldn't get a hang of using it.

 _They….don't need me_

Spinel looked around at the other gems. They were still fixated on the screen in front of them.

"Uhm…..I need to go somewhere" she said, trying her best to sound casual.

The other gems gave half-hearted replies not looking away from their entertainment with the exception of Iolite who gave the other a curious glance from the corner of her eye.

"See ya soon" spinel said, pulling her hood up before leaving the room.

-X-

The morning sun was low and the city was still dark, aside from the occasional strip of sunlight that would highlight one side of the red gems body. Spinel could feel a light wind blowing through her hair.

She liked it when it was like this. Quiet and near deserted, with only a few worker gems walking around.

She stopped in a patch of light and closed her eyes, allowing the warm sun to caress her cheeks. She sighed blissfully before continuing on her way.

Eventually she reached her destination.

She had never been to this, or any for that matter, lab before but luckily, Amber had made sure to give a detailed description of where they were based during the broadcast.

She took a deep breath before entering the building. The red gem looked around curiously at the rooms through the window covered walls, some of which had scientists carefully working in them, until eventually reaching a gap in the glass panes.

She stopped in front of the door, taking a moment to wonder where meeting room 1 was and quickly went over her past choices.

"Heh, I'm the worst"

She opened the door and left her team behind.

-X-

 **Ooookay, this took a really long time, like a lot longer than usual but I was really struggling to find time to write and even when I did, I found myself suffering from writers block. I honestly like the last bit of this more than the start.**

 **Anyway! Please if you read this, leave a review! I always like to hear what people think and I can see on my story stats that I'm getting about 20 visitors per chapter sooo… yeah! Have a good day!**

* * *

[H1]al


	16. dont ask questions

_Amber was sitting in her new work space. She was young still, and not completely sure what she was supposed to be doing despite being told several times. She understood the concept of watching the screens and reporting crimes but surely there more to life?_

 _Nothing happened for the rest of the day and before Amber knew it she was heading back to her rest area._

 _The orange Gem walked down the streets of the advanced city. Bright lights were glaring down on her from all angles, the tall buildings acting as giant lamps in the large city. This wasn't the biggest city on homeworld but still one of the biggest and of course, best._

 _Amber had been payed today. She didn't get much, just enough to pay for her housing and a little bit more which she couldn't actually spend because there was such a small quantity of money._

 _She gripped the thin cards in her pocket tightly, feeling the sharp edges press into her skin. She stopped abruptly as she felt them pierce her hand. She glared at her stinging hand as she pulled it out her pocket, a speck of a dark orange liquid had appeared where the card had hurt her._

 _She looked at it curiously, having never seen it before now._

 _I have liquid in me?_

 _Suddenly she felt someone pull her round sharply. Standing in front of her holding her right arm next to her head, was a dark red gem almost twice her size._

 _"Who are you?" She asked the maroon gem, annoyed she'd been interrupted on her walk home._

 _"Red jasper, your new boss" The other gem answered gruffly, a wide smirk present on her face._

 _"My boss is called Zirconia" she turned around and began walking away but Red jasper grabbed her arm again, bringing them face to face once more._

 _"She pays you and you pay me. Simple."_

 _"I don't think so" Amber tried to leave again only to be abruptly pulled off the ground by her left arm._

 _The orange stone on her fore-arm reflected of the little light from other buildings. Her gem was a prism shape that ran along the middle of her forceps._

 _Terror appeared on ambers face as she felt the pressure on her shoulder, a sharp pain was beginning to spread down her arm._

 _She quickly reached her other arm up to try and pry red Jaspers hand away from her wrist but eventually gave up and instead held on to the others arm just to relieve the pressure on her other shoulder._

 _"Please put me down" she whispered to the Quartz._

 _"Your money in your pockets?" Red jasper smirked at the smaller gem._

 _Amber was about to reply when she had an idea._

 _This can either go very well or very wrong._

 _"Answer me" Amber looked back at the red quartz and studied her face for a moment. Quicker than Red jasper could keep up with the orange gem had removed her hand from the Quartz' arm and slammed a fist into her face._

 _"Agh! You little-" she hissed at Amber but to the small gems dismay kept her grip on ambers arm. In fact she had only tightened it._

 _"You think you can just punch me and get away with it?! I'm a commander you know!" Amber stared at the other gem incredulously._

 _"YOU WERE ROBBING ME" Amber screamed in the other gems face before deciding that this was a very bad idea._

 _In a split second the other gem had slammed Amber into a nearby wall, a peridot that had just come round the corner squealing and rapidly heading the way she'd came._

 _"You wi-" whatever she was about to say Amber never found out. The large gem disappeared in a cloud of maroon smoke and Amber watched from the wall as her hexagonal gem clattered to the floor._

 _Once the smoke cleared she could she a light blue gem standing behind Red Jaspers previous spot, wielding a similarly blue sword._

 _"Are you ok?" The blue gem asked._

 _"Em, yeah. Thanks.." Amber looked on as the other gem shone light from the gem right palm onto the red gem before picking it up and encasing it in a blue bubble._

 _"I'll just send her to another city" She tapped the top of the bubble, making it disappear, "so what's your name?"._

 _"Amber" She hoped that the blue gem would share her own name now._

 _"Aquamarine, or just Aqua. Nice to meet you" Aqua stretched her arm out toward Amber, who just stared at it, not entirely sure what she was supposed to do._

 _"Ehhh… You shake it, look" Aqua gently took ambers left hand, Amber blushing at the contact. The fact Amber could feel Aquamarines cool gemstone didn't help in anyway and actually made her blush darken._

 _The blue gem connected their hands and shook them lightly._

 _"Annnnd that's called a handshake!" She said proud that she was able to teach a younger gem something._

 _"Eh, ok…well I should head to my rest area" Amber replied awkwardly._

 _"I'll walk you. So where do you work?" Aqua asked as the two began traipsing down the street._

 _"The surveillance department- can I ask you a question?" Amber looked over at the other gem. She noticed she was looking up at the sky but dismissed it mindlessly._

 _"Sure" Aqua answered simply. Amber nodded before continuing._

 _"Why did she try and rob me?"_

 _"Red jasper? That's just kinda her thing. She uses her title to take money from lower status gems, especially young ones who don't know any better" the light blue gem had been made to watch many of red Jaspers robberies, unable to do anything from behind her screen._

 _"H-hey, I know better!" Amber stated, only half confident._

 _"Of course you do! You punched her in the face! Nobodies ever done that to her before- it really made her mad"_

 _"Yeah…" Amber rubbed the spot where her head had collided with the wall, "I thought she was going to break my gem at one point"_

 _Aqua sighed and looked back up at the sky, smiling. They'd moved into an area of the city that was dark enough that you could see a few stars._

 _"Look….you just gotta Always be happy, if only to keep others gems happy"_

 _-4000 years later-_

 _"So did anything exciting happen today?!" Aqua gazed critically at the orange gem across from her._

 _"When does anything exciting ever happen?" She asked her friend._

 _"Emmm… OH, love stories?" Amber and Aqua were in Ambers rest area, having their usual gossip about work. At first Aqua had been more than happy to tell Amber stories of what had happened in quadrant 46 that day but as the years had gone on, it felt like she was saying the same events every day, though Amber always seemed enthusiastic about listening to the stories, especially ones about two gems being tragically in love, and having to keep it a secret because of status._

 _"Well… Today there was an aristocrat, I say today but I see them all the time, called calcite and she's been meeting up with a mint pearl. There so cute together but I'm afraid I'll have to report it soon"_

 _Amber swallowed up the words, trying for a moment to imagine how exactly it felt to be those to gems. She figured it was a lot scarier for the pearl. Depending on her owner, she could be shattered for being with calcite, while the aristocrat could probably pay her way out of it._

 _"Why do you think this stuff is wrong?" Amber asked, curiously._

 _Aqua shrugged her shoulders "I've learned not to question it."_

-X-

Amber and Tourmaline jumped as Spinel came in the door and simply leaned against it.

"hello again" she greeted amber and tourmaline before looking over towards lavender, "nice to meet ya".

"giveusinformation!" tourmaline rushed not bothering to pause between words.

"chill, watermelon, I plan on it" Spinel went and took the spare seat at the diamond shaped table.

"please don't call me that" Tourmaline requested, calmer than before.

"aw, your just like lite" Spinel joked, the red and green gem narrowing her eyes at her while Lavender looked on, somewhat confused

Amber watched the little exchange before interrupting, "about Iolite, we need that info now. That is why you're here right?"

"uh yeah, okay so here's everything I know…" she told the others everything that was planned, in as much detail as possible before asking a final question, "so do I get the reward?"

Amber had almost been enjoying listening to the red gem speak about the plan especially the bits about the other gems, she had to hide a smile when she found out about Peridot and Albite though it didn't last long when she realised what would happen now…

"yes, you can take the money and… Lavender pearl" she gestured to the lilac gem, "and of course amnesty. Have a good life, I guess"

"ok, thanks." The red gem was smiling as she picked up the money tourmaline had placed on the table "lavender pearl? Can I just call you lav?"

"I have been getting called Lavender as of late" Lavender replied.

"sounds great, ok…lets go" Spinel opened the door and allowed Lavender to exit before her, "see ya".

-X-

"Are we going to your rest area?" Lavender was having to speed walk to keep up with spinel who was almost running ahead of her.

"no, I need to do something" eventually they reached Spinels Recreation room. Spinel ran behind the counter and pulled some paper and a pen out and began scribbling.

"I've been keeping this paper for sooo long. Guess it payed off" she finished writing and quickly read over it before deciding it looked good.

"okay, lets go" Spinel grabbed Lavenders hand and ran back out the door with the pearl in tow.

Before they knew it they were at Albites rest area. "when I say run, run, okay? As fast as you can" Spinel whispered to Lavender, the other gem nodding in response.

Spinel placed the piece of paper on the door before knocking as hard as she could, "Run".

The two took off sprinting and were gone before the door opened.

Albite picked up the slip of paper, confused and then gasped running back to the others to show them. She gave it to Iolite who read it aloud.

"I told them everthing….im sorry. Spinel"

-X-

Slowly the rebels realised what this meant. They were going to be caught.

Everyone sat in silence for a moment, just letting what had happened set in and try and think of what to do now.

"we can still do this." Aqua stated eventually.

"What?! No we cant! It hopeless!" Peridot yelled at the surveillance expert.

"no. its not, they haven't came for us yet, have they?" Aqua replied.

Iolite leaned closer to the light blue gem, "what are you suggesting?"

"we wing it. Go now and rush them." Aqua looked away blushing, apparently Iolite wasn't aware of the concept of personal space.

Peridot thought it over quickly, "there is a lot of ways this could go wrong", there was a long pause as the other gems looked around the room at each other uncertainly, "but that doesn't mean its impossible."

"so what do we do?" Jade was sure at this point that she wanted to go for it, she was tired of this life and she had come this far already.

Every gem in the room looked to Iolite, awaiting her answer. "we're not giving up now".

"woooo, let's do this!" Aqua cheered, happy to have suggested something worthwhile.

"I can't wait for this to be over" Albite wrapped her arm around her lover, "life will be great for us".

"true" peridot agreed.

"ok well….let go!" Iolite was starting to get excited, something she wasn't often and yet could feel nervousness bubbling up inside her. She pushed down her impeding feelings of fear and decided to focus on her rare excitement.

-X-

Spinel sat in her recreation room with lavender. The latter was sitting on the counter playing with the ends of her hair while spinel stood on the other side of the counter, simply staring at the pile of money in front of her.

 _"was leaving her really worth it?"_

 _"Charoite…I had to."_

 _"no. no you didn't"_

 _"so what do you suggest I should have done? Let us both get caught?!"_

 _"No matter what, your friends should **always** come first"_

Lavender jumped in surprise as Spinel shoved the money onto the floor. She looked over to the red gem to see her leaning her elbows on the counter, her head in her hands.

"Are you ok?" she asked the seemingly distressed gem.

"I think I've made a mistake" Spinel muttered, running her fingers through her hair.

"…..do you want me to pick up that money?" Lavender lightly jumped off the counter landing next to the thin cards littering the floor.

Spinel pushed herself onto the counter and slid over it, grabbing lavenders hand as she began to sprint towards the door, "nope".

The violet gem tripped up before regaining balance and running behind spinel, only narrowly missing having the automatic door shut on her due to the sensors not picking them up at the speed they were going.

"where are we going?" lavender asked as she caught up to Spinel.

"to help my friends. I won't abandon them again…"

 _A cyan blue gem was running down a corridor. It was the corridor of a bank that was on the edge of the gem empire. This specific bank held all the diamonds money and many of the most renowned Aristocrats' money too._

 _A red flashing light on the wall tinted the gems skin purple as she eventually came to a stop at a panel that controlled the doors that separated the part of the building she was in to the part her team mate was in. She looked at the screen next to the panel. The blue-ey green could see spinel attempting to hack another panel in a different part of the building._

 _There was a jasper getting closer to the red gem, similar to the one that had been following her._

 _She pressed a button on a radio attached to her shirt, "Spinel, we've been caught"._

 _She watched as the other gem stopped what they were doing and repeated her actions, "we have?"._

 _"yeah…but you can still make it back" she replied calmly._

 _"what do you- so can you!" Spinel realised now she could hear footsteps approaching her._

 _"n-no, I cant" The jasper that was following her had caught up, unlike her team mate, she was nowhere near a door, "Spinel, run!"_

 _"Turquoise-"_

 _"JUST DO IT"_

 _The red gem took off running and Turquoise smashed the panel as soon as she was clear of the door, effectively locking down her part of the building. The cyan gem stood and watched her friend escape with a small smile on her face until she felt a sharp jab in her side._

 _A few moment later all that was left in the corridor was a lone jasper and a small pile of blue shards._

Spinel skidded to a stop outside Albites rest area and began banging on the door as hard as she could. There was no answer but Spinel didn't stop until her hands where dully aching.

"they must have left already" Spinel went back in the direction they had came, lavender sighing slightly before beginning to run again.

-X-

The rebels were nearing white diamonds rest area getting ready to attack but Iolite stopped them.

"I want to check one more time before we go ahead... are you in?"

The other looked around at each others determined faces before answering in unison.

"We're in."

-X-

Well this was fun to write. I can't believe I killed someone. Well it can only get worse now!


	17. Loss and reunion

**AN: this took way too long….**

-X-

Zirconia was watching the screens connected to the camera's around white diamonds rest area. She had been stressed lately, between crime rates seemingly picking up and worrying about the gem that used to work for her.

She didn't want to worry for Aqua's safety but a long history with the gem made it difficult. Aqua had been working for her since before the wars on earth and was the only gem she knew from that time who was still alive. But then she was the only gem who didn't leave.

It wasn't like she didn't try.

During the time gems were leaving for earth to fight, the diamonds scrambling to get any fighters they could (though pearls and peridots were not permitted to leave) almost all the gems who worked at the surveillance department had left, as many other gems did.

Most gems would whisper about what side they would stand by once on earth, those who had heard the tales of freedom that came with being a crystal gem would choose to fight for earth while others simply went to defend their home planet.

Aqua was among one of the ones who wished to join the crystal gems. She had told very few gems and only ones she trusted as she knew some of the others had a history of being aggressive.

Turns out her trust was misplaced. Zirconia had found Aqua lying on the ground being occasionally kicked by a couple of bigger gems who had apparently found out about her plans.

The two attackers had tried to justify what they'd done by spilling what they had heard but zirconia sent them both on their way any so and told them not to come back. After that Aqua had passed out in zirconia's arms and the leader, feeling sympathetic had taken her back to her office and cleaned her up.

Zirconia leaned forward to the screen as she saw a familiar gem come into view.

 _'What are they doing_?' She watched as the group talked for a moment and quickly caught on to what they were about to do. Or kind of did anyway.

"Those…IDIOTS" zirconia quickly tried to think of something, anything, she could do to make this situation better.

She quickly logged into the buildings system, attempting to find out how many others could see the rebels.

'Six others' suddenly she connected to all the computers that would be able to catch the other gems and shut them down. ' _There. It's all I can do for them"._

-x-

Aqua and Jade swiftly skirted up to the guards outside the large building. The two bored looking Quartz didn't even realise them until it was too late. Aqua took down the first one, quickly swiping her sword through the tiger eyes torso with Jade following up by pushing a kamayari into the other guard ribs.

The remaining rebels joined their friend as they made their way inside. The room they were now in was just a large square shaped hall with tunnels at every corner that stretched all the way to the high ceiling.

"White diamonds rest area is down that way" Peridot whispered while one of her floating fingers pointed to the far right tunnel.

But before anyone could move any closer they heard a clash of heavy footprints heading towards them, battle ready soldiers quickly surrounding them.

But before anyone could move, three poofed away in a series of short bursts, acertain sword wielding blue gem standing in their place. Aqua quickly swiped the three gemstones up and bubbled them, sending them elsewhere before readying her stance to fight.

The attack was enough to jumpstart the other renegades into action as they started hitting the soldiers with all they had.

The battle went on for about 4 minutes, the rebels' unwavering determination serving them well as they took minimal hits, before a yell was heard from somewhere in the hall.

"Code F has been approved!"

All but one of iolites team continued fighting, having never heard the term before, but Jade had. The Quartz gem froze in place as she heard the familiar code word.

" ** _Fusion_** ".

Within a few seconds there was four large fusions standing in the room. Many of the soldiers had decided they didn't need fusion and were still attempting to beat down their opponents alone.

The rebels gawped at the looming gems and took a few hard hits while doing so. Iolite was aggressively knocked to the ground only to be sharply yanked to her feet by Aquamarine.

"What do we do?" She heard peridot whisper behind her. There was a million thoughts of doom running through the dark blue gems head but she quickly repressed them so she could focus on the plan. She'd be damned if she didn't at least die for a purpose.

"Keep fighting, I'll try and sneak albite to the corridor."

The lime gem nodded before running towards a rather slow lemon Quartz and blasted them in the abdomen.

Iolite quickly found the gem she was looking for and began to drag her in the direction of the tunnel, never properly explaining where they were going and instead just muttering something about being fast.

It didn't take albite long to realise they were leaving her comrades behind to fight and the white gem pulled her wrist out of iolites grip.

"Why can't leave them!"

"We have to, they'll be fine" Iolite quickly replied, making another grab at the taller gems arm and beginning to run even faster.

Albite looked around her as they ran and occasionally whacked soldiers away with a medium sized hammer she had summoned. The aristocrat could see peridot just up ahead and watched intently as they approached.

Peridot was fighting a rather persistent jasper, who had clearly been blasted several times but refused to retreat into her gem. Unfortunately she didn't see the monstrous fusion behind her.

Albite watched in horror as what looked like a spirit Quartz sneaked up on her lover. In a flash she tore her arm away from iolite and sprinted over to peridot just as the fusion raised its massive axe into the air.

Time seemed to slow down and the white gem could feel tears flowing down her cheeks as she threw her form in front of peridots with her back turned to the giant.

The blade landed on the back of her neck. Precisely in the same location as her gem stone.

-x-

Peridot turned round as she felt someone behind her and a mix of shock, horror and fear crossed her face as she saw Albites gem be struck.

"A-albite?"

The white gem steadied herself on peridot as time slowed down further for the lovers. She placed one last kiss to her girlfriends quivering lips before speaking, "finish this for me. And try not to be too upset".

Albite gave peridot a finale sad smile and then just like that, her body disappeared into a white cloud, matching shards falling to the ground moments later.

Peridot grabbed the remains of her lover tightly, a few tears dropping down on to them. She then bubbled them and sent them somewhere safe.

She could still feel that massive fusion in front of her and the worst bit was she could tell it was smirking.

Suddenly she turned an ran while the fusion chuckled lowly, "what a wimp" she commented before following after the green gem.

-x-

Peridot ran as fast as she could, eventually stopping next to Jade, "JADE, I need a weapon NOW"

Jade quickly glanced at peridot while she stabbed her kamayari into an attacking clear Quartz before handing it to the technician. "Sure" she shrugged.

Peridot sharply turned and thrust the weapon into the approaching fusion. She was only tall enough to hit the spirit Quartz' thigh but that was enough to stun the fusion but nothing more.

"Ha! Did you really think that would beat me?"

Peridot grinned darkly at the fusion. What she had done had been completely intentional. The two were now standing directly at the entrance of the building and all it took was a few steps backward for peridot to reach the destabilisers that had been dropped by the guards earlier.

She quickly grabbed both and jabbed them roughly into the fusion. A few gems round about them were trampled as the giant took a shocked step back while others stopped fighting to stare in bewilderment at the decomposing fusion, earning them self a weapon of some sort hitting their bodies.

-x-

Iolite stared over at the few remaining guards and then at the now empty space where albite had been killed. She was standing just inside the corridor and was leaning on the wall while lightly pulling on her hair with one arm.

She had no idea what they were going to do now. Even if her team mates defeated the remaining soldiers, how were they going to go ahead with their plan. She looked down at her hands, wishing she had held albite tighter, then maybe they wouldn't be in this mess.

She decided her first move should be to consult the others and began to make her way in Aqua's direction.

"Aqua!" Iolite skidded to a stop next to the sword fighter, the Jade she was fighting sparing iolite a quick glance before returning to the fight, "a-albites dead".

"I know"

Iolite could just about see tears in the corner of Aqua's eyes. Aqua had seen albites death and hadn't been able to do anything about it. She had simply thought back to the past few days that she had spent with the aristocratic gem. Albite was about the same age as Aqua and the light blue gem had enjoyed talking about past with her.

"Are you-"

"I'm okay, what's the plan?" Aqua interrupted.

"Um…." Iolite tried to think of a plan of action while her friend struggled to subdue her opponent. "We'll…. Have to destroy her physical form….can we do that?"

"Yes." Aqua looked to be thinking for a moment before speaking again, "the others might not think so but I know we can"

"Great, lets poof the last of these soldiers and–" Iolite was abruptly cut off as the jade Aqua had been fighting slammed her weight into her. Aqua watched in shock as iolites small body hit off a nearby wall with a painful smack before turning back to the jade now with a fiery determination in her eyes.

The two traded hits continuously, sword to gauntlet, and Aqua could feel herself tiring. But she knew the jade was struggling to keep up with her speed and any moment now—

Aqua glared as her opponent looked down at her torso, shock etched all over her face as she saw not one, but two swords sticking through her. The other gem stared at Aqua with undisguised hatred one finale time before retreating into her gemstone, Aqua catching her gem in a bubble before it even hit the ground.

-X-

Iolite watched from the floor as Aqua defeated the fighter, looking on in awe at her friends skills. She barely registered that Aqua was running towards her, a pounding in her head suddenly seeming louder than ever and clouding her mind.

"iolite! Are you ok?!" Aqua quickly looked behind her to make sure nobody would attack them before kneeling down in front of the navy blue gem.

"More or less…" she pressed a hand to the back of her head but immediately removed it, a stinging sensation becoming more apparent at the action. "I hit my head".

"I saw, come on!" Aqua grabbed iolites hand to pulled her to her feet and began to run towards one of the remaining fusions and jumping on it from behind. She held on tight as the fusion turned to face iolite. With a bit of struggling, Aqua managed to summon her sword and stabbed it into the large gems upper back and just narrowly missing a milky coloured gem stone.

Before the fusions components could get off the ground Aqua rushed through and poofed two of them, the final one standing up slowly.

"You….you'll never win" she appeared to be an aventurine, her dark green hair falling in her eyes as she spoke, "we'll never be free…"

Aqua jumped in surprise as a series of crystals that had previously been on the wall shot through the Quartz's body, poofing her instantly.

"W-who did that?" Aqua had certainly never seen someone be impaled by crystals.

"Me." Aqua looked over to iolite who was standing about two metres in front of her, looking slightly irritated.

 _We're wasting time_

"You…THAT'S SO COOL" Aqua shouted excitedly at her friend.

"What even is it? I mean some sort of kinesis, I presume, why didn't you tell me?! I wish I could do that"

Iolite waited patiently for Aqua to stop talking before replying, "Crystallokinesis, the power to move crystals telekinetically, I never told you because it was never relevant".

"It was totally relevant"

"Not really"

"Are we supposed to be doing something?"

Iolite face palmed as she realised she had allowed herself to get distracted. She pressed against her head once more, the stinging three starting to numb away.

"ok, lets go finish this!"

The navy gem made her way towards peridot who was leaning against a wall looking into a lime bubble, the others could see the blatant grief on her face clearly and walked closer quietly, so as though not to interrupt the grieving technician.

Iolite looked over to where jade was still fighting and quickly swiped her hand in her direction, the tiger eye not even looking at the crystals now stabbing through her body before retreating into her gem. Jade bubbled the gem and sprinted over towards the others.

"come on, we need to g-…oh" apparently jade didn't know about albite, "really sorry, peridot".

Peridot tried and failed to clear her vision of tears but eventually gave up and simply bowed her head, "its….fine" the words came out strained and it became very obvious to the group that it wasn't in any way fine.

"here" jade gently took the visor of peridots face and wiped the tears away with her thumb, "now you can see"

Aqua leaned closer to peridot stopping just a few inches from her, "I don't know if it's the right time to say but…you look really nice without your visor".

Peridot looked up at aqua and blinked, "thanks" she replied in a quiet tone. Aqua searched her face for any hint of emotion and broke out into a wide grin when she saw the tiny smile dancing on peridots lips.

Suddenly the four could hear loud footsteps, in fact they could feel them, vibrations running through their bodies whenever the approaching gem placed a foot on the ground.

"Oh no" Aqua looked the four corridors trying to predict where there next attacker would come from.

Peridot suddenly stood up straight, tapping the bubble containing Albites shards away as she did. She recognised those footsteps. This wasn't another guard, no it was much worse and yet exactly what they needed.

 **It was a diamond.**

-x-

"White diamond" the others turned to look at peridot upon hearing those whispered words, Jade instantly wanting to disbelieve it, "are you sure?". Peridot looked at her allies and then across to the tunnel where Iolite had been previously, "Yes and she's coming from that direction".

"We're dead" Jade sighed and leaned against the wall before receiving a sharp jab from Aqua's elbow.

"We are not. Did you see how many soldiers we just took down? We can do this.." Aqua trailed off at the end and waited for a reply from the green gem next to her.

Before jade answered, peridot quietly spoke, "albite said to finish it for her…we're gonna at least try".

Jade never got to answer before a loud voice cut through the hall,

" **am I interrupting**?"

The giant diamond was standing across the hall from the rag tag team. She was wearing a dark grey jump suit with a trail of white diamond shapes going down from her neck to her hips, her silver hair was sticking up in odd directions and a cape that started black and slowly faded to white was draped over her soldiers and down her back.

"Why didn't you just kill us while we were distracted!?" Iolite yelled up to her. White diamond chuckled to herself and crossed her arms, "your not the first rebels to attack me you know, I always let them try and succeed…..it's fun to watch you **fail** "

Iolite noted the fact that she had said 'you' not 'they. She was so sure they'd lose….and now they were going to prove her wrong.

"Iolite, how much can you do with those crystals?" Aqua asked, quickly slipping into the leader role.

"Not much, it puts a strain on my gem and mentally exhausts me" Iolite replied, she had noticed the change in command but let it slide, Iolite wasn't a tactician anyway.

"Ok, well….be careful. Jade, give Peridot one of your stabby things, just in case"

The soldier rolled her eyes at 'stabby thing' but said nothing ,instead simply summoning a kamayari and handing it to peridot.

"Ok, here's what we'll do…" Aqua dropped her voice to a whisper before continuing, "me, Jade and peridot, we'll attack from the front, Iolite, I need you to sneak behind her and do as much damage as you can, ready?"

" **Ready** " the other three answered simultaneously.

And so the fight began, Iolite stayed near the edge of the hall and waited for the right moment while the others quickly moved in to what the decided was a good position to start the fight in. White diamond watched them carefully as they moved around.

"Is she not fighting?" She said, talking about Iolite who was still standing idly, away from the others. After a few moments of getting no reply she spoke up again, "I'm not surprised, she looked weak".

Iolite, meanwhile, stood proudly with a small smile on her face ' _just you wait_ ' she thought to herself.

white diamond summoned her weapon, a scythe with an elegant looking pattern on the handle. "What are you waiting for?"

In a flash, Aqua was off. The light blue ran and jumped as high as she could, swinging her sword forward as she did, she was immediately blocked by the elegant staff but wasn't undeterred, she landed on the ground gracefully and got ready to charge again.

Seeing their team mate rush into the fight instantly kickstarted jade and peridot and the two started to get closer just as Aqua touched the ground.

Jade decided she would attempt to do as much damage to the diamonds legs as possible in the hope that she would collapse or at least trip.

Meanwhile peridot starting shooting as big a blast as she could get at white diamond face and midsection.

White diamond suddenly took on a very irritated stance, apparently these hits mixed with blocking aquas attack was getting annoying for the leader.

Aqua made a mistake. It was inevitable but costly. As soon as white diamond noticed her fault, delivered a hard smack to the side of Aquas body.

The light blue gem took a quick and unnecessary breath as she felt the air get knocked out of her, she barely registered that she had hit the ground and might not have noticed if the action hadn't sent a sharp jolt of pain through her being.

Aqua lay on the ground, still dazed, as white diamond positioned her scythe so she could slice through aquamarines body. The others attacked harder but the diamond ignored them, only taking a moment to kick jade away and scowl at the small holes she had left in her leg.

She was about to poof Aqua who attempted to move but decided against it as it caused more waves of pain to hit her.

"Sorry" she whispered before closing her eyes and waiting for death. It never came.

White diamond abruptly dropped her scythe as she felt a burning ball of energy hit her hand and watched as a second ball of energy, which she now saw was oddly tinted orange, hit her weapon causing it to dissipate before it hit the ground.

"Sorry we're late! We misplaced the invite" Aqua looked towards the voice, recognising it instantly.

"AMBER", she got up, ignoring the pain it caused, and ran to her friend and threw her arms around her, "I'm so glad you came"

"Not just me" Amber gestured to her side where tourmaline was standing, looking very apprehensive.

"Hi, again" she greeted the light blue gem.

"Are you going to fight or talk?" The others glared at white diamond and jade stabbed another kamayari into her upper calf.

"Fight" Amber answered cheerily.

Tourmaline took the moment to confess something she had been avoiding, " Amber, I've never summoned a weapon, I don't how"

"oh, here!" Aqua summoned a sword and handed to tourmaline, "do what you can with this"

The three moved out and the others resumed fighting, tourmaline joining Jade at white diamonds feet, albeit extremely hesitantly.

Amber made her way to peridot. "Peridot I need you to do something"

The green gem stopped shooting little blasts at the talk gem opposing them to listen to Amber

"When I say shoot, shoot one of your blasts at mine" Amber continued.

Peridot nodded and began to charge up her blast gun as Amber made a sphere of orange energy between her palms.

She pushed the energy toward white diamond and yelled the code word to peridot. A few moments later the two butts of energy met and created an even bigger ball. The energy was tinted green and orange with white electricity cursing through and around it. It finally hit the diamonds entire top left and exploded, stunning the giant woman who cursed herself for not dealing with Amber first, she was obviously more dangerous—

White diamond looked down at her body and saw what she had already felt. Multiple clusters of crystal piercing through her body. She spun round to look in the direction that the crystals had came from and growled as she saw Iolite standing smirking at her.

Before she could do anything Aqua quite literally appeared out of no where in front of her and stabbed her sword into white diamonds chest, keeping hold of it as she fell.

Aqua landed in a crouched position on the floor and as she did so the diamond next to her poofed away into a massive cloud of white that filled the entire hall, and she waited for that sound.

 ** _Clink_** ~

-X-

 **An: Um, so I apologise for the lateness, I mean it's been months, hasn't it? Oops.**

 **Anyway I kinda got writers block and lost motivation and was too busy etc etc, and so that's why this took so long. On the bright side! This is the longest chapter I've written I think it's… about 3,900, so not that long but long for me, haha.**

 **I'll try and get the next chapter out as soon as possible which shouldn't be too hard because I'm not allowed in any social media till Monday as part of a fundraiser, which leaves me lots of time to write. So eh…see ya!**

 **Bonus: "what are you waiting for" and "just you wait" were most definitely a reference to Hamilton**


End file.
